Kay:

Hey there Questers and welcome back. Happy Monday, it’s February 8th and this is episode 286. We’ve got such a cool quote for you today and remember it’s Black History Month so this month, all of our quotes are coming at you from phenomenal black leaders.

Shi:

And today’s phenomenal black leader is Jeanette Jenkins who tells us, “One of the most powerful things you can do is take responsibility for your life – your choices, your actions, your life.” Yeah, Jeanette!

Kay:

What a good and powerful quote. With one of, I think, the most instrumental and fundamental pieces of personal growth and development advice there is.

Shi:

Right. Take responsibility. Don’t give out blame. This is definitely one of those foundational lessons we all have to learn on this journey and voyage to growing ourselves, getting better, and really creating the life that we want and deserve.

Kay:

Now before we get too far into this we want to offer you all a helpful perspective that really helped Shila and I when thinking of this idea of taking full responsibility for your life, because there isn’t a tendency to say, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, girls, I get it. But not everything in my life is my fault.

Shi:

Well, that’s why we like to bring in Will Smith’s amazing distinction here that things that have happened to you might not be your fault, but it’s for sure your responsibility to take care of your life and stand guard at what it is that you want to protect and create. So, this idea of like, well, it’s not my fault. That’s the thing about excuses, the more valid they are, the harder they are to get rid of, but it’s still an excuse. So, taking responsibility means that you say no matter what happened to me or what I’m confronted with, I have the responsibility, the ability to respond in a way that is productive and helpful, and resourceful for me.

Kay:

Now, Kay here, when I was 19 years old, I picked up the book called Success Principles by Jack Canfield who co-authored the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Now, Jack is a personal growth and development author. He’s known well in the industry. But at 19 years old, the principles inside the book Success Principles were totally groundbreaking for me. The first principle in the book happens to be, “take 100% responsibility for everything in your life.” Now, at this time I was putting a lot of my responsibility for my life, into the hands of other people. What I had to come to this realization with this principle was that not everyone is spending their time concerned with my life. In fact, I’m the only person who spends the majority of my time concerned with my life and therefore I’m the one who has the power to actually do something to change it.

Shi:

Shi here. Reflecting on this whole “take responsibility for your life” principle, especially with my own kids. I have got two ten-year-olds, they’re in fifth grade, and a seven-year-old she’s in first grade, so squarely in the elementary years with three kids. Just watching this, I like to joke but it’s not a joke because it’s the truth that kids are bottomless pits of desire. They literally have no bounds to their desire. So, as a parent, that can start to be frustrating for you. You realize that these boundaries and these responsibilities in the sense of ownership has to be taught to us as kids or later in our life, as Kay learned in the Jack Canfield book. But you really have to condition this in. So, it doesn’t necessarily come hardwired in that I’m going to take responsibility for my life, my choices, my actions as Jeanette tells us here. I asked the kids to clean their rooms and they couldn’t find certain hats that they wanted to wear, and it turned into this whole big thing when really if they had just taken responsibility in the very beginning they would have gotten such a better result from their parents and from their own experience. It was a moment of reflection for me and Parenthood and a good lesson for the kids.

Kay:

Well, let’s take a look at the word responsibility in itself. If we break the word up into its two components, we have response and ability, which means the word responsibility is truly your ability to respond. So, when you give your responsibility to other people, by playing the blame game or making a ton of excuses, you are literally giving away your personal power and your ability to respond to the things that are going on in your life. As Jeanette Jenkins tells us, “One of the most powerful things you can do is take responsibility for your life, your choices, your actions, your life.”

Shi:

Alright, it’s time to do your Monday, Fun Day, #GetItDoneDay Responsibility Quest.

Kay:

Okay! Okay!

Shi:

Alright, today, we want you to take responsibility for your life in each way that you can. Observe the ways in which it empowers your actions here on this Monday, get it done day! Are you ready to get it done?

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest!