Own Your Choices

“Stop lying to yourself and own your choices,” I told a young friend recently.

He was sharing with me some challenges he was encountering at the workplace and on the home front, and his entire approach was around how he was doing his best, but things were not working out. His attitude was as if everything happening to him at his workplace and the home front was not his responsibility.

• I have given my best, but the results are not happening. 
• I am having financial troubles, barely making ends meet. 
• I need my company and my boss to support and take care.

My friend was caught in the web of a passive mindset, being under the illusion that his current situation was not his doing and was entirely driven by external factors.

My message to my friend was triggered by his passivity. I wanted him to wake up to his reality where he was in control and responsible for all that was positive and negative in his life. He was as much, if not more, responsible for his current situation than those external factors.  

Everything that happens in our lives is our own doing. We are in control; we control how we respond to life’s ups and downs and how we talk to ourselves. Ultimately, we are responsible for everything.  

I wanted my friend to demonstrate an active mindset of extreme ownership. I wanted him to own up to his current reality, understand how his current situation was a consequence of his own actions, and take responsibility.

Was he really doing everything he could to change his situation? I wanted him to stop lying to himself. I wanted him to own up to his choices and take control of his life.