Did you know that there are thousands of quotes about taking responsibility for your own life?

Each one points out that the only person responsible for you, who can save you, who can get you where you want to go, is you.

I know, when we’ve been wounded, we want to point at the person who hurt us and say, “It’s their fault!” Especially when that wound happened in childhood, where we were unable to protect ourselves or hold our abusers accountable.

And that’s absolutely correct. It isn’t your fault.

What is your responsibility is how you will deal with it as an adult. Will you take responsibility for healing your wounds?

Responsibility goes far beyond abuse recovery, too.

It means when you find yourself in a mess, you have to look at what you did to create it.

Feeling a little uncomfortable? Yeah, me too. I promise, me too.

The fact is, it’s apparently human nature. Even Sophocles commented on it. Others include the Dalai Lama, Albert Einstein, and Oprah Winfrey, just to name a few.

When we don’t take responsibility for the course of our own lives, we leave ourselves at the mercy of the world and people around us though. We abdicate all personal power, and all rights to claim anything we want.

Sounds miserable, right?

Try looking at it this way.

If a person puts out a bird feeder, but doesn’t fill it, the bird doesn’t sit on the empty feeder complaining until it starves. It goes and finds food. That’s what it means to take responsibility for your life.

Spend a little time this week looking at your life. See where you are, and where you want to be. Then, see how you’ve created the situation you’re in, and figure out the changes you need to make. Pro-tip, a counselor can help with this.

When you take back that responsibility, you’ll find yourself with more freedom and more enjoyment in your life. It’s a sucky place to start, but you can make it into your house of dreams.

I believe in you.