5 steps to inspire you to Take full Responsibility for your own success

The deceptively simple and yet obvious thing about success is that it starts and ends with you. Success is always about personal responsibility. No one should be more passionate about your success than you.  If they are, you are on the wrong path. You need others to help and support you on your journey, and they can certainly help open doors for you, but to walk through those doors, you must always take the first step.

These five steps can inspire you to start living from a place of more responsibility today:

1. Make the decision

Before you can do anything, you must make a decision.  And making the decision to be fully responsible for your life and your success can feel daunting. It requires a giant shift in what you are willing to tell yourself about who you are and what you can accomplish.  It also requires you to look in the mirror and decide that you are done making excuses and done blaming others for your circumstances. When you make the decision to personally own your success, you change your thoughts and your energy which in turn changes what you do from today forward.

2. Set boundaries

If you are going to go all in with success, you must learn to set healthy boundaries first and foremost with yourself.  Think about your vision of success, figure out where you are getting distracted or frustrated, and start cutting out some of those distractions.  Once you are done with your own boundaries, think about where you may need to set firm boundaries with others. Being successful means learning to manage your time and energy in ways that allow you to move toward your goals and also stay healthy. Do not worry about setting the perfect boundaries, just start somewhere and adjust as you go.

3. Shift from passive to active

While thinking and talking about successes are great, actions are important because they always leads to results. One of the best ways to break out of this thinking and talking cycle is write down your thoughts and talking points as action items. Even if some of them seem far-fetched, take time to turn them into something that directly relates to your success vision. Then take the leap. Get out of your comfort zone and do something. To be a successful person, you need to fully own and accept that no one else can shift you from passive to active, only you can do it.

4. Embrace the fact that your direction may change

Being personally responsible means understanding that your direction may change, but the feelings you get from being successful would not. This is why it is so important to really get in touch with why you are doing something; success is about how you feel, it’s not measured in number of followers on social media or material things. What you must focus on is your passion, what you should do is what everyone else tells you to do.  Catch yourself when you start to compare yourself to others and remember that their vision of success is just as unique as yours. Focus your time and energy on your own vision and let others pursue their dreams.

5. Live with integrity

The ultimate way of showing, not just saying, you are stepping up and taking personal responsibility for your success is by living with integrity. Integrity is the foundation of trust. What are you promising yourself and others? Are you following through on those promises or making excuses when those promises are broken? When the words and the deeds match, you have integrity. Integrity is one of the cornerstones of success so be sure you keep it top of mind in everything you do.