The quickest way to forfeit important life lessons and control of a situation is to blame others instead of taking responsibility. Blaming is so easy to do, but it depletes our energy in a BIG way. It distracts us from asking the important questions….“what can I do about it?”, “what would I like instead?” and “what can I learn from this?” Learn how to take back your control, soak up valuable lessons, and become a more successful entrepreneur and a human being with the power of accountability!

Read transcript below:

Steve Napolitan: Welcome to More Business More Life Daily. This week, we’re talking about, Successful People, Versus Unsuccessful People. Not in a definitive or anything, but here what are the main things? And today I want to talk about, Blaming Others, Versus Taking Responsibility.

So, another big energy suck, can be when we blame other people or other things for what we should be taking responsibility for, and let me just say, again, not sitting here from perfection by any means, does this happen in my life? Absolutely. Has it happened less because I’ve been conscious of it? Yes, and I want to share this with you.

What I’ve found is, often we think that time is one of the most valuable things, and I’ve said this before, so if you’ve been watching, you’ve heard this, but what actually it is, is energy. Because if you have time but you don’t have any energy, then the time is not of value, right? We have to have that energy, and then one thing that’s easy to do is to blame someone or something else.

Blaming, “Oh my computer worked off, the internet did this, or if there wasn’t traffic, or whatever it is, or this person didn’t do this or if that, or this.” Then we’re putting all this energy outward, and it’s really easy to do because it’s a little harder to look in the mirror and say, “What can I do?” But as you do this, just even feel that energy. Like when I’m “Oh, it’s this or it’s that, or it’s this.” Then I’m letting my energy go out, right? I’m putting my energy elsewhere, and I’m also letting life control me.

If you believe as I do that we have choice, the only things we really can control is our own mind, which is our thinking, right? What are we thinking about, and then what actions do we take? And so everything else, we can’t control other people, we can’t control other things, but what we can do is we can change or we can choose our reaction. And so if we put an outward blame, then we’re releasing our control.

We’re basically saying, “If it wasn’t for that I would have this, or if it wasn’t for that, I would’ve had a nice day, or I would have the business that I want, or I would have the revenue that I want.” Instead of saying, “Okay, this didn’t happen, we can get feedback from it, we still want to be wise, but what would I like? What would I like instead? What can I… and more importantly when it comes to taking responsibility, what can I do about it?”

And there’s something about it, While we take that responsibility and then we can also now bring the power back to ourselves, the power, the responsibility brings our energy level back up and you’re now back in control, instead of saying, “It’s an outside thing that caused my problem.” And just noticing this is what… I’m just picking apart what I’ve noticed with people that have more success, they tend to quickly take responsibility.

“What could I have done differently? How could I have contributed to this project differently, to this team differently, to society differently?” How are you showing up, and how are you taking responsibility for yourself instead of blaming other people? Right? Again, to go to the opposite, when we blame other people, we’re giving up our energy, we’re giving up our power, and we’re basically saying, “If it wasn’t for all these things or all these people, then I would have the life that I want, I would have the business that I want.”

So just start noticing when you start to blame… And this happens, does it happen to me? Still does. I might be like, “Oh, look at what just happened.” My awareness of this has gotten more acute, and now I’d more quickly say, “Wait a minute, what can I do about this?” And then that shifts into my creative mode, and then I start to take action, and I start to have a new result in my life.

So every time you go to point fingers at something, ask yourself, what can you do differently and what can you do right now to change the situation? It will empower you and it will allow you to have more success. I do believe this, after watching this for many, many years. So I hope this has been helpful, I’m going to continue down this path tomorrow, and we’re going to talk about a few other things that I’ve noticed about, Successful People, Versus Unsuccessful People. And I look forward to seeing you on that tomorrow. As always, remember, choose gratitude and create freedom.