Take Charge of your Life

“A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsible for your life, and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make.”

- Denis Waitley

1) Do you find yourself setting goals and then leaving them mid-way?

2) Do you keep procrastinating taking the required action?

3) Do you keep beating yourself up for not following your dreams?

You get started and then get sidetracked. You fall back into your old pattern again and again. If this sounds like you, don't give up. Read on...

Life is the greatest gift of all and too precious and short to be wasted. It should not be lived with any kind of regret or taken for granted. You can choose to discard any reason or excuse you’ve been giving yourself to lead a life that is far below your standards.

No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, or how old you are, it’s never too late to be who you are meant to be. You can choose to do anything you wanted to do, be it pursuing your passion or learning a new skill or falling in love or forgiving someone or apologizing to someone or doing anything that brings more fulfillment and happiness in your life.

Taking responsibility is the starting point for any change in your life. It is looking inside and realizing that if you want the world around you to get better, you will have to get better first.

Responsibility means response ability, the ability to give response. The acceptance of total responsibility for our lives is the chief hallmark of mature human beings.

You must take responsibility for yourself and your environment and invoke the positive changes you desire most. Every moment, you are presented with the possibility of changing your future and taking responsibility empowers you to feel in control of your destiny.

You cannot dodge responsibility for how and why your life is the way it is. No matter how hard you try to blame others for the events of your life, each event is the result of choices you made and are making. You must recognize that you are responsible for your actions in life and reactions to people, situations and things. If you deny your mistakes or fail to take responsibility, you fail to learn and improve.

You must take responsibility to change the circumstances that you do not want in your life instead of putting your energy in blaming others for the undesirable conditions. I have gone through the same phase in my life and can deeply understand how difficult is being caught up in that vicious circle.  What will happen if someone helps you in finding a new you who lives life the fullest. Let me give you some wisdom pointers that you can follow to take complete charge of your life. Because once you do so, you are able to create the life you truly love.

1) Take charge of your health, your biggest asset

How you take care of your body or fail to take care of it, can make an enormous difference to the quality of your life. If you want to stay healthy for life, you need to take care of yourself.

Health is maintained and improved through your daily efforts and lifestyle choices. By creating an environment in which making healthy lifestyle choices is easy, natural and enjoyable, you are able to maintain your health.

You must determine to exercise to be fit, eat to nourish your body, take sufficient rest and adequate sleep for renewal. To operate at your best, you must give your body the fuel (in the form of food, water and oxygen) it needs.

With lack of the right quantity (physical energy), quality (emotional fitness), focus (mental strength) and force (spiritual vitality), you are compromised in any activity you undertake. And to perform at your best, you must skillfully manage all the four interconnected dimensions of your health – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. If any one of them functions below par, your capacity to fully ignite your talent gets diminished.

2) Have clarity of what you want

Clarity precedes mastery and the more clearly you look for what you really want, the more powerfully you can generate the desired results in your life. By being clear in your intention, definition and decision, you are able to narrow your attention to the details and can quickly check your progress to remain on track.

Clarity doesn’t come to you, you have to go for it. The greater clarity you have regarding your outcomes and the steps you will have to take to achieve them, the easier it is for you to overcome procrastination and fulfill your desires.

3) Define your goals

Without clearly defined goals, you are like a ship moving through the deep seas without a course. A goal creates positive pressure which is necessary to move forward. Setting a goal is acknowledging to yourself the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

Goals are dreams with deadlines. If you are unable or unwilling to establish a deadline for your goal, you probably need to re-examine your commitment towards achieving it.

When you set goals, you need to set yourself free from any limitations on what you can become, do or have. You need to put all the mental roadblocks and excuses aside and believe that you can achieve anything you want, as long as you are perfectly clear about what it is.

You must set goals for all areas of your life like self-development, work, family, health and finances. You must have a big enough “why” behind your goals so that you are focused on the meaning and value they provide to your life.

4) Take massive action consistently

Knowledge is power but only action gives us results. You must commit yourself to take massive action consistently to realize our dreams. You can think of acting in multiple ways to do something in order to improve your results. Attaining your goals is simply a matter of believing in yourself, and then taking the required actions to accomplish them.

You can start with something simple and build momentum by deciding to act. If you allow yourself to become paralyzed by indecision, doubts may linger and turn into fears.

Limited, unproductive actions prevent you from being the best and manifesting your desires. In order to turn your positive intentions into actions, you need to have a clear plan in place.

5) Use failure as feedback

When something you are doing does not produce the results that you want, treat the results as feedback. Then use that feedback to change your approach or strategy to improve your performance and get the desired results.

You always have a choice between either allowing ourselves to be bogged down by our undesirable results or learning the lessons that have presented themselves.

Human beings learn by hit and trial. Failures and mistakes are like a feedback loop about actions that are not worth repeating. The only real failure is the one from which you are unable to learn anything.

As you leave your cocoon of comfort, you may fail more than others. If you persistently accept failure as a feedback that benefits you in your quest for excellence, success will indeed be accomplished with relative ease.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

-Steve Jobs