(This series is based on the teachings of Robert Betz)
Step 1: Take Responsibility
Step 1 may sound like an easy step, but taking full responsibility for one’s life is nothing less than revolutionary. It means to stop blaming others – the demanding employer, ungrateful children, unpredictable weather, irritating spouse, unreliable friend, useless government, unfavorable circumstances, unjust God – and instead realize that you are the creator of your own life story.
Taking responsibility means a shift from being a victim to being a conscious creator. Consciousness is the key element here. We tend to be conditioned: action A automatically triggers reaction B and therefore our days often resemble a movie on auto-repeat. Before automatically reacting to something in the future, let’s take a breath, realize that we have a choice and that the first choice is whether we want to simply react in a reflex-like manner or whether we want to make a conscious decision of what the best course of action is. Choosing the latter means to consciously create your life and to take responsibility for it.
As the extraordinary Eleanor Roosevelt noted:
Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry its own weight, this is a frightening prospect.
But while it may sound frightening at first, taking responsibility for our lives soon becomes a very empowering prospect. The simple but powerful act of simply realizing our responsibility will create a shift in our thoughts, our emotions, our actions and therefore our lives.
Going even further, accept that you are also responsible for everything that has happened in your life so far, even before you have decided to become a conscious creator. We cannot be anything other than creators. With every single thought, we create our reality. The difference is that in the past we have created unconsciously which has often lead to undesired effects; now we decide to realize the intentional power of our thoughts and to create the lives we want to have.
Please, don’t mix up responsibility in the current context with duty or with the question of guilt and blame. Responsibility in the current context simply means the realization that you are the creator of your life through your thoughts, your actions and your decisions. It is a question of cause and effect and hopefully a shift from unconscious creation to conscious creation. The quality of our decisions is a different story and will be discussed in the following steps.
And once we have decided to become the conscious creators of our lives, a whole wide world of opportunity arises and opens up its gates to an ideally purposeful life.
