Take 100% Responsibility

The entire audience was rapt during his talk. He is a great speaker (and very easy on the eyes as well!). He spoke for 2.5 hours and stayed for several hours signing books and taking the time to speak with each book buyer individually. You can bet I was in line buying a book and getting it signed!

He began with some stories about his first Chicken Soup book, co-authored with Mark Victor Hansen. That book was rejected by 144 publishers before it was published! His advice is to persevere. He says: What if I had given up after 100 publishers said no? It also took him 13 years to make his first million.

He shared several principles from his latest book: The Success Principles, co-authored with Janet Switzer. I found Principle #1 to be the most powerful.
Principle #1. Take 100% responsibility for your life and your results. Act as if you created everything that happens.

How powerful and liberating! It means that no one is holding you back. Whatever you need to do, you can do! All those thoughts about how your childhood, relationships, and other jobs have done you wrong; all your past mistakes -- those are ultimately not important. Right now, all you have to do is take the next step on the path YOU want to follow.

Jack Canfield's Three Ways to Change Your Life
1. Do more of what's working
2. Stop doing what isn't working
3. Try new stuff.

On some level, we each know what we should do in order to build our business. And we are often NOT taking those actions. We've fallen into the all-too-common trap of saying one thing: I'm committed to success, while acting another way: I'm committed to remaining exactly the same.

One part of your brain is completely invested in ensuring stability in your world. Whenever you have a new idea or want to develop a new attitude or habit, that part of your brain is going to engage the emergency brake, immediately!

When you start thinking about your new idea, or start acting on it, you may start feeling anxious or foolish.

That is the security-seeking part of your brain, doing what it does best -- maintaining a stable world for you.

Luckily, you don't have to listen to it.

Jack Canfield's advice for those moments: When doubt comes along, step aside from it, act in accordance with your belief, and focus on your vision.

Still having problems starting and finishing the task that you know you need to do? Another strategy, which originally comes from Brian Klemmer, is to push yourself into action by risking something. If you don't take the action, give $20 (or more!) to a group you hate. You can make out a check in advance to a group you hate, give the check to your leader or accountability partner, and give her permission to send it off if you don't accomplish the task you've set yourself. I haven't tried this one yet but I'm confident it will work!

Call to Action

For the next 7 days, adopt the "I'm 100% responsible" mindset.

Whenever you encounter something that isn't working, whether it's small (the closet door doesn't shut tight) or large (my relationship with a friend isn't working well), take responsibility for that.

Ask yourself: "How did my actions lead to this?" Do that with a goal of learning, not of blaming. Then ask: "How can
I fix this?"

The answer is usually pretty clear. So take that action.

It's going to move you further along your path to success, where relationships work and all the doors in the house finally shut tight!