Episode 1019: Take Responsibility for Yourself

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1019 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Karen Lealand: I'm Karen Tiber, Leland, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, having the ability to recognize when you are not managing your energy well is key.

[00:00:25] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mann.

[00:00:33] Scott Maderer: Because the truth is that is why self-responsibility is empowering because it allows us to take action in our life. And through that action, we grow, we develop and we move more and more into alignment with our core. And what we are meant to do what we are put on this earth to be, and to do and to have, and to share.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself.

[00:01:19] Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:26] And today's episode about investing in yourself through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about why we need to take responsibility for ourselves. I share seven specific ways you can take self responsibility. And I also talk with you about how this is empowering. If you really approach it this way, you've heard me talk about developing your talent and what are the best ways to do that is through books.

[00:01:52] But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by [00:02:00] audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign. And you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from, and you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via audible.

[00:02:18] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible. To get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. Yesterday. I talked about taking self responsibility when it comes to your time and tomorrow I'm going to talk about taking self responsibility when it comes to your money.

[00:02:38] But today I wanted to talk a little bit about just that idea of taking responsibility for yourself. No, the truth is you can go and look for quotes and information, and you can see things like Albert Einstein said, man, must cease attributing his problems to his environment and learn again, to exercise his will.

[00:02:59] His [00:03:00] personal responsibility. Jim Roan said, you must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons or the wind, but you can change your. That is something you have charge of that's really what I'm talking about here. The idea of changing yourself for the better of making changes for the better.

[00:03:24] And don't get me wrong again. I'm not saying that your world is perfect and it's all in your control. I'm not saying that we all start with the same advantages. I'm not saying. That some people don't have more privilege than others. I'm not saying any of those things, all of those things are true, but the question then is.

[00:03:46] What are you going to do in response to those truths? How are you going to own what you do in response to that? That question of why not [00:04:00] me? When we see other people achieving success or failure, and instead looking at things and saying, but why me, what am I going to do? What action am I going to take?

[00:04:13] No. The truth is you have done things and made choices that have resulted in the place you are today. Again, not saying that there aren't things that are outside of your control and not saying that some people don't have advantages and others disadvantages, but even still, you have made choices that have either increased or decreased the places that you got to and where you are today.

[00:04:41] Circumstances have influenced it and they may be, have controlled certain limits of it. But at the end of the day, they still aren't the thing that have controlled where you are today, your choices in response to those circumstances is really what's done. [00:05:00] And again, we talked yesterday a little bit about fault versus responsibility.

[00:05:05] We often treat those two things like they're the same concept, but the truth is fault is usually used as a negative. It's your fault. You made a mistake. It's your fault and responsibility is about owning that. So if you did make a mistake, yes. That's your. But what are you going to do to take responsibility for that mistake?

[00:05:28] The mistake was the problem. Taking responsibility, taking ownership, taking control allows you to perhaps turn that problem into something that's a positive. It allows you to begin to move forward in a better way, just taking fault or blaming someone or blaming yourself. Isn't the action. It doesn't help.

[00:05:54] Taking responsibility allows you to get more freedom in your life because [00:06:00] you now have ownership of your choices. And that means you begin to take more ownership, which begins to make more changes in your circumstances, which then feed back and allow you to make even more choices. And it's an upward spiral instead of a downward spiral to take.

[00:06:21] And leave off responsibility leads to that downward spiral where you begin to go into a litany of self-talk that's negative and you move the energy and the direction of your life in a downward direction. All of these things are true. So when we're talking about self-responsibility, what are some of the things that we need to look at?

[00:06:45] What are some of the things that we need to do? What are some of the frameworks that we can take to take on self-responsibility first? You can give up the need for approval. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you [00:07:00] never listened to other people. I'm not saying that you don't seek advice from other people, and I'm not saying, cause you probably also had a knee jerk reaction of, I don't seek approval from others, but the truth is you probably do at some level, most of us do we seek approval from those we love and care about.

[00:07:19] And those that do understand us, but we also seek approval from people that don't even know. Again, people sometimes the old will Rogers Crow quote is they spend money. They don't have to impress people. They don't like, because the truth is we tend to want the approval of the group. We seek that out, but the truth is.

[00:07:43] When we give up that need for approval in comparison, we began to take more responsibility for ourselves. And I've talked before, even in this episode about our self-talk and the way we talk to ourselves. That's the second thing you can do. Be attentive to [00:08:00] yourself. Talk, pay attention to the language you use.

[00:08:03] Are you talking about things in terms of choice and empowering words are you talking about things in terms of inevitability and disempowering words? When you talk to yourself? Third find and develop a habit of gratitude, be mindful and pay attention to finding gratitude in a way that empowers you.

[00:08:27] Not in a way of I'm looking at this as I'm so glad this did or didn't happen to me, but what actions have you taken to create better things in your life for. Seek out and look to others as your teacher, this is different than seeking their approval, finding out whether it's a good relationship and a good activity or a bad one, whether it's a good interaction or a negative one, everyone can teach you something.

[00:08:59] My mother [00:09:00] used to say that everyone serves it as an example. It's just some people serve as a bad example. It's the same idea. Look at what is it about other people? That you can learn from and take from in a positive way to grow your own life. And then next forgive yourself and others find ways to forgive.

[00:09:24] Not necessarily forget, but forgive when things have gone wrong, both for yourself and for others. Take the time and the energy to look and find ways to give up the negative. Next be willing to ask the big questions, really ask yourself the hard questions. What do you really want out of life? What are your real emotional drivers?

[00:09:53] Where do you really want to go? What are your real passions? What are your real gifts? What is your [00:10:00] calling? And then lastly, number seven, create your own story. Be the active writer of your own desks. Find ways to make your own choices and be empowered to do things because the truth is that is why self-responsibility is empowering because it allows us to take action in our.

[00:10:27] And through that action, we grow, we develop and we move more and more into alignment with our calling and what we are meant to do what we are put on this earth to be, and to do and to have, and to share. And that is real power. Thanks for.

[00:10:50] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and [00:11:00] passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your call. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.

[00:11:21] Or if you're in the us, you can text 4, 4, 2, 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4 4 2, 2, 2, and get those tips until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.