The Person Always at the Scene of the Crime…

I want to build on the last post and the new podcast coming out today, going deeper on the subject of taking responsibility for your own prosperity – health, happiness and success.  In the post I equated it with personal leadership, and it is that.  But it’s also about co-creation.  Co-creating your prosperity.

For review, the theory of von Mises on causing humans to change their behavior requires three dynamics:

• They are dissatisfied with their current state.
• They have a vision of a better state.
• They can see a path to get there.

Yesterday I challenged you to do this for yourself.  This requires doing the introspection to recognize that you are dissatisfied with your current situation, then creating a compelling vision of something better.  You need a vision magnetic enough that it pulls you toward it.  Then it gets harder…

Because instead of waiting around for some inspirational leader to create a way for you to become prosperous – you have to do figure it out for yourself.  You have to create the path that you’re confident will get you there.  (Because if you don’t see that path, you’ll never get out of inertia mode.)

Perhaps the most trying part of all this is the requirement that you leave behind victim mode, and accept responsibility that you manifest your own destiny... 

That means you can’t use excuses like:

• But my boss is so cheap…
• Then the economy tanked and…
• But then my ex-spouse…
• I was born with this disability…
• The area I live is impoverished, so…

This is not to say that you don’t have legitimate obstacles to manifesting prosperity.  You certainly do.  But so does everyone else.  As you’ve heard me say six million times, you can be a victim or a victor, but you can’t be both.  You either choose to accept excuses like the ones above and relegate yourself to victimhood, or you commit to overcoming those obstacles and becoming a victor.

For 30 years I lived in victimhood, using pretty much all of those excuses above.  My breakthrough came when I looked at my situation:  Numerous health challenges, business failures and negative, dysfunctional relationships.  So I certainly met the first criteria from von Mises: I was dissatisfied.  I was able to act on the second two only after I asked myself the most important question I have ever asked myself…

Was there one person who was always at the scene of the crime? 

I didn’t like the answer I got.  But that answer was what liberated me from lack and limitation.  I took personal responsibility, and instead of thinking of myself as a recipient of my life, saw myself as a co-creator of my life.

You don’t become prosperous because you have no challenges.  You become prosperous because you choose to overcome your challenges.  You choose to do the difficult work of challenge, growth and self-development.

You up for that?

-RG