Accept Responsibility for Your Results

“A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.”

- James Allen

The above statement is a truth most people realize later than sooner, and sometimes never at all.

These powerless people spend their whole life looking to someone else to give them direction, handle their problems, and assure them everything will be okay and work out the way it’s supposed to.

But for some reason, their desired results never manifest in reality. Sure enough, after it’s too late these poor souls come to realize they squandered their chance to live the life of their dreams simply because they refused to accept total responsibility for their results.

Be completely honest with yourself when you answer the following question.

Are you one of these people?

• Do you believe that in miraculous fashion, the results you desire will appear out of thin air without putting your nose to the ground and consciously creating them yourself?

• Do you constantly turn the other cheek when faced with an important task or area of your life requiring urgent attention and think to yourself I’ll get to it later, it’ll be okay until then?

• Do you attempt to delegate your responsibility to someone else by constantly blaming others for your persistent mediocrity and failures?

How the hell am I so good at diagnosing the symptoms of a classic case of Relinquished Responsibility Syndrome (RRS)?

Because up until recently, I suffered from a case of the same syndrome myself!

How I Came to the Realization

About a month ago, as I was reading Steve Pavlina’s brilliant book for the very first time, it suddenly dawned upon me that my life looked nothing like the dream life I had spent so much time imagining. Even worse, I realized that if I continued down the path I was on at that moment in time any longer, there was absolutely NO WAY I would ever create something even CLOSE to resembling the life of my dreams.

I began to investigate the cause of my less than spectacular results, and after much deliberation I finally ran head first into the source of all of my problems.

Subconsciously I believed my parents would always make sure everything would be alright, and that they would take care of me and accept responsibility for the areas of my life I chose to turn away from.

No! This couldn’t be. Here I was thinking that for the last 21 years of my life I was the master and commander of my ship, while in reality I was subconsciously sabotaging my results by relinquishing my responsibility to my parents the whole time.

So THAT’S what my Dad has been babbling on about for the last three years. Oooooooh!

As soon as I realized this truth, no other action was required on my part. It was an absolutely HUGE insight that had an immediate and drastic effect on the way I looked at my life.

• No longer did I look to my parents to tell me what needed to be done.

• No longer did I turn the other cheek to the ugly reality of my situation, thinking it would all sort itself out in time.

• No longer did I wait around for the results I desired to manifest in my reality.

I immediately started taking action. I put my nose to the ground and started 30 day trials for new habits I wished to form. I changed my career back to one centered in purpose, passion, and contribution. I created a new daily routine that facilitated my productivity on a day-to-day basis. I made an active effort to ensure the relationships in my life were empowering and of high quality.

I realized that no one else has to live with the results in my life except for me. I can complain to people until their ears fall off, but at the end of the day they can leave my life behind and go back to wherever they came from. I don’t have that luxury.

Neither do you.

Taking Back Control of Your Results

Take a moment to look around and investigate the state of your reality.

Are you proactively creating the life of your dreams by consciously accepting complete responsibility for your results?

If your answer to the above question is yes, but for some reason the results haven’t shown up yet, then ask yourself:

Five, ten, or twenty years down the line will the path that I’m on right now lead me to a life filled with the results I desire?

If the answer to this question is no, then it’s time to do a self-diagnosis for Relinquished Responsibility Syndrome. If you skipped it the first time around, scroll back up to the bulleted and bolded questions at the beginning of the article and answer each one as honestly as you possibly can.

If after answering these questions you come to realize that you haven’t been accepting responsibility for your results up until now, then you should be feeling the immediate need to take action and change things up. If you don’t feel a sense of urgency, and you aren’t instantly able to see the connection between responsibility and results, nothing has changed and you haven’t deeply realized the truth of your situation.

Keep exploring the source of your Relinquished Responsibility Syndrome until you find the answer that gives you an AH HA! moment. It should make you want to get off your ass and start fixing your life right away.

Remember, no one else has to live with the results in your life except for you. Accept this truth, and you will find that manifesting the results you desire is much easier. No longer will you constantly sabotage your efforts by relinquishing responsibility for your results to someone else. That brings us back to Mr. James Allen and his words of infinite wisdom.

Sooner or later you will realize that you are the master-gardener of your soul, the director of your life.

Let’s make it sooner rather than later.

Photo by mikebaird

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