Day 325 of #LiveWell2017

I’ve been working on a new morning routine lately, trying to build some new habits that will make me more productive and creative each day. It’s been harder to be consistent with a good morning routine since I don’t have to get up to go to a workplace each day. So, I enlisted the help of the Morning Sidekick Journal. On day 9 of the journal, I saw this quote by Hal Elrod:

“The moment you accept responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you can change anything in your life.”

My first thought was that I do take responsibility for everything in my life. Then I started to think about it a little more, and I realized I might think I take responsibility for everything in my life, but there are times when I do make excuses for not doing something and then silently place blame or fault on someone or something else.

I’m not going to get up and go for my morning walk because it’s too cold outside. I’ll wait until later when it’s warmer. Here, I blame the weather for delaying my morning walk. But delaying that walk may actually mean I never get it done that day, because once I’m up and get involved in other things, I may never make time for that walk.

Taking responsibility for everything in my life means taking responsibility for my emotions, too. When I get angry or feel happy, am sad or fearful, bored or elated, that’s all on me. I am responsible for how I act and feel, how I respond to what’s going on around me, how I choose to be in this world. It’s a hard pill to swallow, this taking responsibility. It’s so much easier to blame someone or some thing else. Even, or maybe especially, for the the little decisions we make each moment of each day.

But when we do accept that responsibility, then we have the power to change. We can change our minds, our hearts, our actions, our results. We can choose to create a life that we love. Every day.

What’s the hardest thing for you to accept responsibility for in your life?