Taking responsibility for Your Actions

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you’re in charge of.”
– Jim Rohn

We’re all human. Everybody makes mistakes.
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Whether intentional or not, we can do or say something that can hurt people or cause a larger problem for others at work, school, in a relationship, etc.

When it comes to making mistakes, the best thing to do is to start taking responsibility and owning up to your actions.

Some examples of taking responsibility for your actions can look like:

• Listening to other people’s perspectives on how something made them feel to get a better understanding of how something you did/said affected them
• Communicating where you’re coming from and why you made a specific decision in that particular moment
• Having a sense of self-awareness and knowing what went wrong and how to make things better or make things right.
• Identifying why what you’re doing isn’t working and why it’s creating tension.
• Apologizing when you need to and making an effort to fix a situation.

For some people, taking responsibility for their actions is a real challenge. As a result, some people blame others or make it seem like that problem was out of their control, but in reality, it was from something they caused themselves. 

While it is true that external factors and other people can contribute to a problem, always making excuses and relying on pointing fingers as a way to distract people from something you’ve done can cause friction and make the situation worse.

Unfortunately, you can’t change people who don’t want to change. Some people are stubborn or too proud to admit when they have done something wrong.
But to improve ourselves and those around us, some simple steps in accountability can go a long way.  

Taking responsibility is a way to start taking charge of your life. Taking responsibility can help build trust and respect with others for owning up to your mistakes. When you identify things that aren’t working in your personal or professional life, you can make goals on how to improve them.

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