Accepting responsibility is a huge step for most people. First you must be honest with yourself and come to terms with the fact that you haven’t been fully responsible for yourself. Your words, your actions and your outcome. Ouch, that is a little harsh! What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that it is so much easier to go through life blaming situations and other people for what goes wrong in our lives. So most of us do. I know I did for a long time and it sure is an easy trap to fall into. But by taking baby steps – one at a time – this can be overcome with self acceptance and a lot of honesty towards one self. It is all worth it since you are the one person that can change your life! And if you are a leader or strive to be one – this is a great place to start. Within yourself.

How Does it Work?

John C. Maxwell said that “the greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.” So how do we accept responsibility for ourselves – including our words, our emotions, our attitudes and our actions?

Let me share with you what I did. I started examining my life and looking for patterns where I had neglected to take responsibility. I will give you an example. My finances. I believed it was so unfair that I had been working hard for such a long time, without having much to show for it. What I didn’t realize was that I was not taking responsibility when it came to my finances. Hence, money was not the problem – I was!

I started to see where I had chosen not to take responsibility in my life. How my words and my attitude were often negative which then reflected in the reality I was experiencing.

It was hard but finally I was willing to look myself in the eyes to see where I had chosen not to accept responsibility. I realized it had affected so many areas in my life.

Responsibility is a Source of Power

I discovered that I had been giving away my power by not being responsible for my words, my actions and my attitudes. It was reflecting in my communication, my boundaries (or lack of boundaries), my way of thinking and the way I was responding. Often times I was stuck in the cycle of thinking about what other people might think rather than accepting responsibility of my own life and listening to my intuition.

By accepting responsibility I soon started to feel the benefits and I became more empowered each day. A big part of this process is to come to terms with the past. To get to the place where you can own your story and finally let it go. The reward is self acceptance. In my experience, this three step process is the alpha and omega of becoming the empowered leader in your own life.