Fault vs Responsibility

In the world of entrepreneurship and self improvement there are so many quotes, ideas and strategies you get told to implement that it can get a bit overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact that you just kind of give up and do none of them.

I read a lot, listen to a lot of podcasts and generally take in a lot of information but over the last 6 months or so there’s one idea that has stuck with me. It’s an idea that can be applied to your outlook on life, and it came from a place I didn’t think I would find it.

TV Presenter Jake Humphrey, and his High Performance podcast.

I’ve heard him explain this idea a few times and it’s hit home every time.

The idea of fault vs responsibility. It might not be your fault that something happened, but it is your responsibility how you respond to it.

A bit of context —

It’s not your fault that your partner left you, but it is your responsibility how you respond to it.

It’s not your fault that your mum and dad split up when you were a kid, but it is your responsibility how you respond to it.

It might not be your fault that you got made redundant, but it is your responsibility how you react.

What it basically boils down to is what you do with your emotions and how you control them when presented with a problem. Do you let your anger get the best of you when something goes wrong? Or do you channel that emotion into something positive?

Too many of us react emotionally and we don’t progress. We end up in this stupid loop.

It’s also about where we place blame. Things go wrong in life, that’s just the way it is. If you go through life and somehow nothing goes wrong, you’re the luckiest person to ever walk the earth.

However, there are a lot of people who look at something that has gone wrong in their life and then blame everything after that on that one issue. Yes, it’s not ideal that your business failed because the market crashed but that cannot be blamed on why you’ve done nothing since. Fault vs responsibility. Yes, it’s not your fault that the market crashed but it is your responsibility to respond to it in the right way.

Now none of this is easy. The emotional side of our brain normally wins and it takes a lot to not let that side drive the decision making.

Take a step back, think, analyse, start to look at it from a different perspective.

Fault vs responsibility.

See you next week.