You Own It!

One of the keys to changing your life and accomplishing your goals is to own it. You have to take responsibility for attaining the goals you want. No one else owns it because it is your goal! Own it no matter what may happen as you pursue it.

You are the one who has the most interest in attaining your goal. Sure, others may benefit from your goal attainment but they won’t make it happen like you can.

I see way too many people who are still waiting for someone or something else to make them successful and happy. They are basically hoping that life will be fair to them and their strategy is to hope things will work out. They confuse their "oughtabees" with their "realities." Life "oughtabe" more fair. The economy "oughtabe" be better. The reality is that life isn't always fair and the economy isn't always good.

If you are not taking responsibility for your goals, things could work out. Luck does happen but can you count on fate to attain your goals? Absolutely not. Bad luck happens as often as good luck so luck in and of itself is at best a 50/50 proposition.

I improve my odds of attaining the goal when I go beyond hoping for good luck and recognize that the harder I work, the luckier I seem to get. Seriously, it seems that when I work hard at something, I seem to have better luck at it.

If you are not owning the goal you have set, you will not attain it. If you don’t own the goal, when you suffer a setback or obstacles get placed in your way, you will find it easy to make excuses. You will justify in your mind that you could not accomplish the goal because you had bad luck.

If you do own the goal, when an obstacle gets placed in the way or you suffer a setback, you find a way to overcome those obstacles or setbacks. The mark of a true winner is the ability to get the job done no matter what the obstacles.

It is easy to accomplish goals when the business climate is good or life is going good. The true champions find ways to win no matter how bad the business climate or life or what gets thrown in front of them.

They don’t waste time making excuses. They spend that time owning the goal and finding ways to work around or through the obstacle to get where they want to be.

When I was leading organizations, nothing drove me over the edge more than hearing people not taking responsibility for themselves. Those were the people who somehow always managed to be a bit short of hitting their sales or profit goals and there was always a reason it was someone else’s fault.

At the same time, the people that I valued the most were the people who owned the goals and made no excuses when they suffered setbacks or obstacles. They hit their goals no matter what was thrown at them.

In the business world, your differential advantage is your ability to get the job done the right way no matter what. People who do that will make more money and receive much more recognition.

It is the same in accomplishing goals. Those that own their goals and take responsibility for attaining those goals, no matter what happens to them, have better results in attaining their goals.

Only you can control your destiny! Own It! Own it everyday as it is what you do everyday that counts!