We began in Success Principles 101 with the foundation for success. Principle 101 was "take 100% personal responsibility for your life". In this segment we will explore how to do that more effectively. We continue that thought with this article.
Our lives are the results of things that happen within us. Some of these things are good and others are bad. We don't always control the things that happen to us. But we can control the things that happen within us. We control how we will respond to the things (events, occurrences or whatever you want to call them).
With each thing/event we respond. This determines how things will turn out for us. For example, if you find a $100 bill on the ground walking home, you can go to the store and spend it all. You can spend $10 and save the rest. In one scenario you just spend till you would go broke. In the other you still spent (although much less) and ended up $90 richer.
What determines the end results? Was it the $100? Or was it the decision you made as to how you would use it.
Years ago I belonged to an Investment Club. We researched, purchased and sold stock as a group. I had a stockbroker who gave us advice on how to play the market. We had purchased some shares of a telecommunication stock. She told us to do our research and see if we wanted to increase our holdings. By her estimations the company was positioning itself to do something that would impact its stock price. We did our research and found they were looking to make some bold steps so we increased our holdings. The stock increased in price more than fourfold in a short period of time.
She told us if we were serious about investing in stock we had to watch the market and the companies we were invested in. You have to "know when to hold them and to fold them". Well we failed to look at the bigger picture. We were so excited about our new found wealth that we didn't keep watch on our stock. The company made some more moves that were not favorable in the market and the price plunged. We lost almost all of our profit from before. We sold at a small profit and the group became discouraged.
We made a decision based on an event in the marketplace and the result was an increase in our portfolio. Consequently we failed to respond to another event in the market and lost all that profit. Whose fault was it for our success? Our failure?
Taking 100% responsibility for your life means you own the outcome. Good or bad. We profited when we acted one way and lost when we acted another. It was our fault.
