Nathaniel Branden - It's Your Life So Make
Most of It One of most important ingredients in your personal development is taking real responsibility for your actions. This requires that you consciously become cause of results that you want. Refuse to behave like a victim... or to wait for someone to save you from life's problems. Keys to Self-responsibility
To reach your full potential, you need to take responsibility for your actions in meaningful ways...
Consciousness. You have a choice -- you can pay attention and be fully present when you are making critical decisions, such as working on a project, reading your performance review or deciding whether to have another drink. Or you can be physically present but mentally absent during these activities. Either way, you are responsible for level of consciousness you bring to any occasion -- and you are responsible for results.
Decisions and actions. It is tempting to "disconnect" from our choices -- to insist that someone or something is driving us to behave way we do. Other people don't make you talk or act in certain ways. You are responsible for how you speak and listen... whether you act rationally or not... whether you treat others fairly or unfairly... whether you keep your promises or break them. Once you recognize that you are source of your own decisions and actions, you are far more likely to proceed wisely -- and to act in ways that will not cause embarrassment or regret later.
Fulfillment of desires. A major cause of unhappiness or frustration is imagining that someone will come along to "rescue" you -- to solve your problems and fulfill your wishes. A self-responsible person recognizes that no one is coming to make life right or to "fix" things. You acknowledge that nothing will get better unless you do something to make it happen.
Beliefs and values. Many people are happy to reflect passively what others believe and value. Or they assume that their ideas arise naturally out of their feelings -- by instinct. Self-responsible people work to become aware of their beliefs and values... to critically scrutinize them... to seek out people who see things differently... and then to make up their own minds.
Setting priorities. The way we spend time and energy is either in sync with our values or out of sync with what we claim is important. If you understand that way you prioritize your time is your own choice, you are more likely to correct contradictions. Instead of being overwhelmed or neglecting people and activities that are important to you, you reexamine your values or set priorities that make more sense.
