100% Responsibility

I've been called in a number of times over the years to work with organizations experiencing various types of challenges such as:

• Profitability lower than expected or lower than peers
• Customer service challenges - both internal and external
• Staff "not playing well" with one another 
• Workflow bottlenecks 

A tool I have used with tremendous success over and over is the book The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be  by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer.

For the record, The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is not just for organizations that are experiencing significant challenges.  It is a tool that I recommend to everyone!  I've used it with 17 year old kids trying to figure out what they want from life, to 70 year old executives trying to figure out what they want next in life.

The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is also not a "read it once from cover to cover and put it away" kind of book.  I suggest reading it once cover to cover to get a feel for the material, then going back and working through each of the each of the 64 principles at a pace that feel right.  My prediction is if you work through the process at a pace that allow the material to sink in and become habit, it will be an eighteen month to three year process.

I have had the very good fortune to personally work with Jack Canfield, including a one year program in which I spent two days with Jack each quarter as part of a very small group for  a year.  After working so closely with Jack, I can truly say he is genuine.  He practices what he teaches; his private life looks like his public life.

100% Responsibility

Let's look at some of the key points in Principle 1:  Take 100% Responsibility For Your Life.

"If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that you experience in your life."  This includes:

• the level of your achievements
• the results you produce 
• the quality of your relationships 
• the state of your health 
• your physical fitness 
• your income 
• your debts 
• your feelings 
• everything 

Canfield and Switzer quote George Washington Carver as saying "Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses."

They go on to say "Taking 100% responsibility means giving up all your excuses -

• all your victim stories  
• all the reasons why you can't and why you haven't up until now 
• all your blaming of outside circumstances 

  "You have to give them all up forever."

The Winning Formula

"Do more of what is working, do less of what isn't, and try on new behaviors to see if they produce better results."