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Let’s take a moment to chat through an important piece of being a leader: accountability. One can never become a leader if one insists that life happens ‘to’ us. If you are under the assumption that life happens to you or that bad things happen to you for no reason, you might need to check your perspective. It’s time to own your accountability.

When you believe that problems are happening to you, you are essentially letting negativity overrule your life. Basically, you’re saying that the trying time you’ve found yourself in is insurmountable. You have to be an active participant in your own life. Take accountability for your actions and find a way to innovate.

If you think positively and focus on solutions rather than everything going wrong, you will go much farther in life and work.

A great Entrepreneur article discusses the idea of how to utilize a positive attitude and a solution-oriented mindset to help benefit the people around you.

Here is what they had to say: “When you come to the realization that things are happening through you, in the betterment of others as well as yourself, you frame the question as, ‘How can I help others, to then help myself?’”

It’s time to shift your perspective. If you believe that things are happening to you instead of through you, you will only ever react negatively. There is no pro-activity here unfortunately and definitely no solutions. Constantly reacting or waiting for the next “bad thing” to happen will not push you forward in any way.

Do y’all remember the show “My Name is Earl?” I certainly did not until the other night when it auto-played on Hulu after finishing an episode of a different sitcom. While a great show for four seasons, it was abruptly canceled in 2009. Sure, that was a long time ago, but a great lesson never dies. I ended up watching the first episode again and it reminded me how important it is to proactively move through life doing good things in the service of others.

Long story short, you can’t sit around and wait for life to happen. It all comes back to accountability. If you never accept accountability for something that’s gone wrong, nothing will get done to fix the situation.

The article mentioned above phrased it quite well: “Accountability raises awareness.” By owning the things happening through you, you will be much more open to possibilities and innovative solutions.

So, let’s all take a page out of Earl’s book and take ownership over our lives– but most importantly, let’s do something about it.