I found this article while doing research and developing my Interviewing Workshop. I thought it was so powerful that it is now a part of the participant guide for candidates who attend my workshop. I'm currently preparing for a workshop I'm scheduled to do at a university in NY on Monday and as I reviewed it again, i thought it would be useful for some of you so here it is. Read it carefully and enjoy!
You Are to Blame for Your Success or Failure (courtesy of careerbuilder.com)
Unless you've been under a rock for the past decade or so, you've heard of the inspirational Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, co-authored by Jack Canfield. In his new book, The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Canfield gives us the secrets to success in all forms of life, including achieving the highest goals possible in your career.
"If you want to be successful, you have to take 100 percent responsibility for everything that you experience in your life," Canfield writes. "This includes the level of your achievements, the results you produce, the quality of your relationships ... everything!"
You must be brutally honest to get the results you want. This means giving yourself a huge reality check. While it might be a bitter pill to swallow, the outcome will be the results you've been searching for. Here are Canfield's fundamentals of success on the job ... and in life
Take 100 percent responsibility for everything.
The fundamental principle of success is taking 100 percent responsibility for your life. One of the most pervasive myths in our culture today is that you are entitled to a great life – that somehow, somewhere, someone is responsible for filling our lives with continual happiness, exciting career options, nurturing family time and blissful personal relationships, simply because we exist. But the truth is there is only one person responsible for the quality of life you live. That person is you.
You have to give up all your excuses, blaming and complaining.
We are conditioned to blame and never want to look at the real problem, ourselves. To be successful, one must give up blaming and complaining. Forget the victim stories, the reasons you can't and your blaming of outside circumstances. Instead ask "How did I create that?" "What did I say or not say?" and "What do I need to do differently next time to get the result I want?"
If you don't like your outcomes, change your responses.
If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting the responses you've always gotten. For example, if you send out the same résumé and cover letter to job openings without any response, you should revise them or examine how the jobs you are applying to match up with your skills. If you want something different, you'll have to do something different.
Everything you experience today is the result of choices you have made in the past.
Every experience in your life is the result of how you responded to a previous situation. You have control over three things in your life – your thoughts, images you visualize and your actions. How you use these determines your experiences.
You either create or allow everything that happens to you.
You might disagree with this statement, but Canfield explains, "By create, I mean that you directly cause something to happen by your actions or inactions." For example, you didn't attend any sales or motivational seminars and now the new kid has won a sales award.
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