Taking responsibility for your actions is fundamental to establish trustful relationships with anyone: your colleagues, friends, family members, lover(s), and even yourself.
Assuming accountability not only helps you to improve your relationships, it also enables you to cultivate self-respect and lead your life with more confidence and integrity.
There are many ways in which you can take more responsibility in your life.
One of them is by changing what you say.
In this blogpost, I will share with you one simple vocabulary switch you can use to instantly become a more accountable person.
Let’s get into it.
Yes, you can.
One of the most common ways people avoid taking responsibility for their actions is by using the sentence “I can’t + excuse“.
Here are a few such sentences:
- I can’t go to the gym because I don’t have time.
- I can’t do well in maths because I’m not good with numbers.
- I can’t commit to my partner because I’m too busy.
You might be asking yourself why using expressions like these show irresponsibility.
The answer is, because you are blaming an external cause for a negative outcome that is actually due to your own shortcomings.
You are victimizing yourself and saying that you can’t do anything about a situation over which you do have control.
When you say that you can’t go to the gym due to lack of time, the reality is that you probably don’t want to exercise or simply have other priorities, such as hanging out with your friends.
The same applies to the two other sentences shared above: it’s all about your willingness to do it.
Say “I don’t want to” instead of “I can’t“
So, one extremely powerful way to take responsibility for your actions and stop blaming external causes for your own weaknesses is saying “I don’t want to” instead of “I can’t”.
- I don’t want to go to the gym because it’s hard and I’d rather spend time with my friends.
- I don’t want to do well in maths because I am a slow learner and it would take me a lot of effort and time – that I don’t to spend – to become good at it.
- I don’t want to commit to my partner because I am not sure about him/her and want to keep my freedom.
Don’t these sentences sound way more honest to you?
Obviously, replacing “I can’t” with “I don’t want to” is hard, because it requires you to admit to yourself (and others) that an indesirable outcome is due to your own shortomings.
However, it also enables you to take back your power.
When you say “I don’t want to“, you assert that YOU - and not some external factors – are in control of your own life.
Because the truth is that you really are!
Now tell me: in which situations do you say you can’t do something when you actually don’t want to? Will you take responsibiltiy for your actions or will you keep making up excuses?
If hope that you enjoyed this blog post and, if you did, please comment, share, and feel free to check out other posts from my blog! 🙂
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