power of integrityLet’s talk about integrity and responsibility. As we head into 2015, a lot of people talk shit around the new year. I’m talking about their new years resolutions. New years resolutions have responsibility and integrity behind them. But in order to make your new years resolutions come true, you need to be responsible and take action. To have the integrity to actually follow through on what you promise.

I believe you’re 100% responsible for everything in your life. And I’ll give you an example: I bought a book, I read the book. The book had some really interesting stuff in it. I got jazzed up while I was reading the book. I started thinking about ways that I can implement some of the things that the author said in the book, some of the ways that I can manage my employees better.

Some of the ways I can manage myself better. Some of the ways I can communicate better. I was all excited about the book, and then I got busy with life. I realized I forgot to do some of the stuff in the book. Who failed?

Did the book fail or did I fail?

I did.  Let’s say YOU read the book. You try some of the things in the book but they don’t work out right away. So you get frustrated. You get annoyed. You get pissed off and you start thinking this stuff doesn’t work. “I don’t understand why the author put this stuff in the book, it isn’t working for me.”

Did the book fail or did you fail?

You have the responsibility to do something every single day to make changes. When you read something or order an audio program or go to a seminar. It’s not the responsibility of the person selling the program, writing the book, or creating the seminar to do the work. It’s your responsibility to hold yourself to making those changes.  When we finally see something we need to change, we’ve probably had that habit for so long it’s engrained deeply in us.

When a habit is deeply engrained, and we read a book or go to a seminar or buy an audio program, we get jazzed up because we feel hope that we can change. But it’s our responsibility to make it happen. What happens most of the time is people will try something just a few times and then fail. When we fail, we blame somebody else, (like the book), instead of taking responsibility.

Interestingly, it’s your fault and I’m going to tell you why. You’re trying to change a habit that is deeply engrained. In order to get good at something, you need to put in hours and hours of work. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in one of his books, “Outliers.” In order to get great at something, you’ve got to put in 10,000 hours of work.

Yet we live in a world where people don’t want to take responsibility.  Integrity means you keep the word to yourself. You need to realize, it took you X amount of years to gain this horrific habit, that’s held you back in your life. So, it’s going to take you a lot of hard work, and dedication to change it.

How To Change Your Life Forever

It’s going to take you hours, days, weeks, even months to change a habit.  You can’t just change because you read it somewhere. You can’t blame the person who wrote the book, hosted the seminar, or created the program that failed you. You failed. When you can’t change a habit, you failed. You have a responsibility to yourself to hold yourself in the highest integrity. You have a responsibility to go out there every single day and change that habit.

If habits were so easy to change, if it was easy to become something different, then everybody would be able to do it; snap their fingers and get it done. You got yourself where you are now, you’re going to have to put the time in to change. I am tired of people who send me whining e-mails that things don’t work.

You’ve got the power to make the change.  You need to take responsibility. Michael Jackson said, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror… I’m starting with me.”

That is exactly what I’m talking about.  It’s going to be a new year. It’s time to look in the mirror and take responsibility.  Only you have the power to drive your life in a different direction. In 2015 if you order one of my programs, come to one of my seminars, or buy someone else’s book, only you can implement it. Only you can make the change.