Taking Responsibility, Loving Yourself and Personal Freedom
Posted by Darshana Sanrakshak Shambhala on February 20, 2011 at 12:30pm
Uh... Oh!... I know what you're thinking LOL!... Responsibility EEWWW! Sounds like WORK! As the saying from William Shakespeare says "Above all, to thine own self be true", so what does that have to do with responsibility, love and freedom?
I've been listening to motivational audios from Tom Hopkins,Tony Robbins and Paul McKenna... so I thought I would share a bit about what I'm learning and the insights I'm getting... First of all, why do we have such a BAD image related to the word "Responsibility"... I think it's because, deep in the back of our mind we associate responsibility with "Someone did something wrong" After all when something goes wrong, what's the first thing that pops into our mind?? Who's at fault, who did it... who's responsible??? So naturally being responsible must mean doing something wrong?? right?? So if we don't take responsibility we can't do anything wrong! It's a FEAR response...
Enter PROCRASTINATION... Next time you find yourself putting something off that you promised to do today, like maybe making a phone call to someone, running an unpleasant errand... etc...ask yourself "What is the worst thing that can happen if I take this action"... You'll get alot of different responses... They'll range from, "I'll be tired afterwards, my boss (or someone else) will yell at me, I'll be REJECTED..." Go ahead! Go through the process... Let it OUT and face the hidden fear underneath. What is really bothering you? (An excuse is just a cover up, so look beyond the excuse to the underlying FEAR) Once you know what you are AFRAID of, then you can take steps to remove the fear and the action will get done!
So what is the connection between procrastination and not loving yourself?? Easy! If you promise yourself to do something at a given time and then when the time comes and you put it off, what did you just do? You LIED to yourself. You didn't love yourself enough to keep your promises to YOURSELF, because in the end that's the only person you really have to worry about pleasing-- Yourself. Once you love yourself, respect yourself enough to be honest... etc... everything else will fall into place.. The freedom part comes with once you overcome your fear and take the action you've been putting off...you'll feel FREE! You DID it (Whatever it was)... now that wasn't so bad after all, was it? LOL!
I have a story that I want to share.... A few years ago I overdrew my Bank Of America account. The account was closed and they put one of these "ChekSystems" things in my file, so I couldn't get a bank account. For 6 or 7 years I was AFRAID.. I thought I owed HUNDREDS of dollars to B of A. That one thing cost me additional dollars a month because I had to get one of these"Prepaid debit cards", I couldn't get a Payday loan, couldn't transfer funds to my Brokerage account, and a bunch of other things. I was MISERABLE. Then one day circumstances in my life FORCED me to try and get the problem fixed (I was practically dragged kicking and screaming). I figured I owed around $200, so when I had some money, I gathered it up in my wallet and trotted off to B of A (I had a check to cash there) . (Incidentally, I had applied to Chase bank and they would not open my account because of it, so I figured I would pay it off and they'd clear it, then I would go to Chase and open an account THERE) I had a Bank of America check that I had to cash, so when I was done at the teller window and had my money I nervously walked over to Customer Service to clear my account. I asked the representative... Well... how much do I owe?...then gave her my Social.... You owe $53. I said "what"?? Are you SURE?? She said... let me check again... She said, yes... that's all you owe! I said... OK.. I'm paying this off, so you can clear my ChekSystems and I can open an account someplace else... Then she said: We'll approve you for a checking account here if you'd like?? I said "What"?? You mean you're going to give me a checking account??? How can you do that? She said "It was less than $200, no problem!. We'll give you a Savings account too!. Here's a list of all the checking accounts... which one would you like, and here's a sample of all the checks... which ones would you like? and here are some designs for the debit cards... Which one would you like??" I was totally STUNNED! What could I say?? I gave her the $200 and said... OK! $53 to pay off the debt, $50 into savings and the rest into Checking.. then we walked over to the teller window, and she proudly announced to the teller that I was opening a bank account there, and instructed the teller what to do. I can't even BEGIN to tell you the joy and freedom I felt walking out of that bank with my temporary checks, temporary debit card and bank account welcome package!
.... so the next time you feel like procrastinating... get to the bottom of the fear, and then just DO IT! You may just be surprised at what you'll find on the other end :)
Love and Light,
Darshana