A friend’s father passed away a few weeks ago. When I learned about his death, I immediately reached out to a few people who knew the family as I thought they would want to know what happened. At that time, I didn’t have information about the funeral arrangements. In the days that followed, I got busy with work and didn’t follow up with any of those people. The services were held and the people that I notified, except for one person, were in attendance.

The day after the funeral, that person reached out to me with a nasty text stating that she was angry because she couldn’t attend the wake. She said she had no way of knowing when it was being held because I didn’t get back to her. She blamed me.

At first I felt horrible. She was right, I didn’t get back to her with details. But then I began to ask myself why it was my job to notify her, she could easily have learned the information on her own. She knew the man’s name so a quick internet search would have turned up the obituary. She is Facebook friends with the family, most of whom posted the obituary online. She could have contacted any family member with her condolences and asked about the funeral arrangements. But instead of taking any responsibility for her life, she chose to blame me.

Taking responsibility of your life is understanding that you are fully in charge of your own destiny through your own decisions. Each one of us is responsible for our own life. This is a foundational principle that must be embraced if you are to achieve happiness or success.

For many people, everything is someone else’s fault. Every problem is explained away with excuses or blame. But when you take 100 percent responsibility for your life, it moves you from victim to victor! You learn that you are the creator of your life and not someone who is just reacting to it. It puts you in the driver’s seat of your journey.

Taking responsibility for your life means that no one has the power to determine how your life turns out – not your parents, not your spouse, not your boss, not your friends.

Stepping up and taking responsibility for what’s going on in your life is one of the most important things you will ever do. When you take responsibility for your life you:

·      Stop blaming others or making excuses and accept responsibility for your actions.

·      Stop relying on others to help you live your life. You become aware of the opportunities around you and strive to enact change by taking necessary action.

·       Don’t feel overwhelmed by the negative experiences. You don’t waste your time complaining about why everything is so unfair and why you are not able to achieve your goals.

·       Realize that you have the power to steer your life in the right direction.

It is not anyone else’s responsibility to hold your hand or do the job for you. The sooner that lesson is learned, the happier and more successful you will be. Remember … the moment you take responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you can change anything in your life. Now that’s power!