No excuses please!

One of the common reasons why people fall back from their plans and promises is that it's easier to just let things happen, stick with your old habits, and hope and believe that something better will just come by.

Alcoholics anonymous define insanity as  " continuing the same behaviour and expecting a different result. Nope it's not going to happen. If you're an alcoholic and you keep on drinking, your life is not going to get any better. In much the same way, if you continue your current behaviors, your life is not going to get any better either.

People are so used to believing they should be getting all the good things in life but they could not take in the thought that they should take action for it. Jack Canfield in his big white book "The Success Principles" puts out as Principle #1: Take 100% responsibility for your life.

He likens most people as this man who was on his knees looking for something on the street under the streetlamp. A passerby asks him what he was looking for and he answers that he's looking for his lost key.  The passerby offers to help, bends on his knees too but after an hour of searching, nothing was found. "Are you sure you really lost it here, asks the passerby. The man replies, "No, I lost it in my house, but there is more light out here under the streetlamp..(Tsk tsk tsk, toink!).

It is time to stop looking outside yourself for the answers as to why you haven't created the life and results you want, for it is you who creates the quality of life you lead and the results you produce.

As you take 100% responsibility of your life, you have to give up all your excuses, all your victim stories, all the reasons why you can't and why haven't until now, and all your blaming of outside circumstances. Mr Canfield brought out this life formula:


                                                      E + R = O
                           ( Event + Response = Outcome)

The basic idea is that every outcome you experience in life (whether it is success of failure, wealth or poverty, health or illness, intimacy or estrangement, joy or frustration) is the result of how you responded to an earlier event/ events in your life.

He says there are only two basic choices you can make if you don't like the outcomes you are currently getting.

Choice A:   You can blame the event (E) for your lack of results (O).

Choice B:   You can instead simply change your responses (R) to the events (E) - the way things are - until you get the outcomes you want.

Examples: 

Common Event:  Traffic is at a standstill. Two 10 wheeler trucks collided with each other at NLEX causing a traffic jam. Your usual 2 hour trip turns into 3 hrs.

Response A:  "Nakakainis talaga, buwisit! ( What the f...., I hate this!!! Grrrr!). " Then the guy opens his window and shouts curses.

Outcome:  1. A very bad day. The bad mood shortens his life quality 3 notches lower.
                  2. He created equally hot headed people by inviting other people to join him in the "Ain't it awful" club...


Response B: "Well ok, at least I have some more time to eat my snack in the car, listen to inspiring audio CDs, and maybe even do some leisure reading..good thing knowing traffic can happen anywhere, I had prepared a traffic survival kit. :)"

Outcome: 1. A great day. I was able to finish my snack.
                 2. I learned new skills and ideas from the audio CDs and entertained myself with the book which I planned to read in weeks.


Everything you experience today is the result of choices you made in the past.

Examples:

Event:   You are given a P20,000 bonus.
Response:  You spent in a casino thinking you'll win a million the easy way.
                   You spent it with the guys drowning yourselves with beer and gin.
Outcomes: You are broke!


Event:  You are given a P20,000 bonus.
Response:  You invest it in mutual funds or a well thought off business.
Outcomes:  You had an increased net worth!


You only have control over three things in your life ---  the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take (your behavior). How you use these three things determine everything you experience.



Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
  - Dale Carnegie -