“The fight to take responsibility occurs within.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2000-03-08) from his book, Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes (p. 54). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

I have been having a problem with gaining the weight that I have been successful at losing over the years. I had thrown out all my XXL clothes but the XL clothes that I had kept were starting to get tight so I went out and bought some larger clothes again and by doing that I had just accepted the fact that I was destined to be overweight until last night I stopped and took responsibility to figure out what I needed to do. I decided to do something about the problem other than buying new clothes. So I sat down and started thinking and talking with my wife and we came up with a new plan and I started doing it today. Inside of me I decided to take responsibility not to just accept that I couldn’t do anything about it.

John quoted Michael Korda who is the editor in chief of Simon and Schuster who declared, “Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.”

John then continues, “The fight to take responsibility occurs within. And rarely does talent, intelligence, or opportunity make the difference in whether a person wins that battle. It calls for character. That’s why Stewart B. Johnson remarked, ‘Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves —to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today.’ You can tell when people develop deeper character, accept responsibility for themselves, and begin learning from their failures. It really shows in their performance.”

I believe it is going to work. I am excited.

What is it you need to take responsibility for in your life?

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