New Series: 7 Decisions – The Buck Stops Here

Today starts a new series for Flourish52.  For the next few weeks, we’re going to dive into the book The Seven Decisions by Andy Andrews.

I highly recommend this book, but if you’d rather not read it right now, you can find the highlights of each chapter in this new series.

Today we start with “The Responsible Decision: The Buck Stops Here”

This chapter is all about taking responsibility for our lives, past, present and future.

“From this moment forward, I will accept responsibility for my past. I understand that the beginning of wisdom is to accept the responsibility for my own problems and that by accepting responsibility for my past, I free myself to move into a bigger, brighter future of my own choosing.”

Essentially, this chapter talks about the need to stop blaming other people or circumstances for where we are in life and to take on that responsibility for ourselves.

The freeing thing is, once we realize that we’re ultimately responsible, that also means we can choose a better future for ourselves. 

Ask better questions, make better decisions

Our choices and decisions are determined by our thinking. If we’re going to make good choices, then we also need to have good thinking.

Andy Andrews points out that sometimes we ask ourself “defeated questions”. Questions like “Why am I so fat?”, are not helpful at all.

But asking ourselves something like, “How can I take control of my health and get in better shape?”, will lead us to concrete steps we can take to do just that.

Our society doesn’t encourage taking responsibility

We have a society that doesn’t encourage us take responsibility for ourselves.  Our society always seeks out someone to blame.

Our advertising often includes the line, “It’s not your fault…”.

This type of thinking isn’t healthy for us though.

We can choose to take responsibility for ourselves and choose to make a brighter future for ourselves.

Take inventory of your life

Think about your own life. Where can you claim responsibility for yourself? Is there an area of your life that isn’t going well? Maybe you’ve been blaming other people or circumstances for the situation.

What would happen if you accept responsibility and move forward in that power?

The decision is ours.

The Buck Stops Here.