Both Jack Canfield, author and motivational speaker, and life coach Susie Moore, (https://www.jackcanfield.com/blog/take-100-responsibility-for-your-life-starting-today/) (https://susie-moore.com/writer/best-advice-have-ever-received/) write about “The 100% Rule” to achieve success. Talking with clients about this “rule,” important questions arise about what’s enough effort to put in to reach goals. So, some clarifications on it.  

Here's what Canfield writes: “Take no less than 100% responsibility. Successful people take full responsibility for the thoughts they think, the images they visualize, and the actions they take. They don’t waste their time and energy blaming and complaining. They evaluate their experiences and decide if they need to change them or not. They face the uncomfortable and take risks in order to create the life they want to live.” 

Canfield is talking specifically about taking responsibility. He’s not saying that you can’t ever make mistakes or fail or that you need to be right 100% of the time. This is the error in thinking that many people have when reading his words. He’s talking about being accountable, while they’re thinking about performance. He wants you to recognize that your mindset and actions will make or break success, that it’s time to stop being negative and worrying about outcomes. He says that to be successful you must always have a forward, positive focus. 

The two keys to making this happen are being honest with yourself and reflective or introspective. There’s a difference between saying you don’t have time to exercise when you do and skipping the gym and being sick with the flu and passing on exercise for a day or two. There’s a difference between having a piece of chocolate because you crave its taste and eating it mindfully and snarfing down the entire chocolate bar.

Susie Moore says that when we don’t give a 100% effort (no excuses!) we exhaust ourselves and end up feeling as if we’re struggling all the time and not getting anywhere. I hear this lament often from clients as in, “I’ve been working at becoming a “normal” eater for a year and nothing’s changed.” What they mean is that they sometimes put attention on eating “normally” and often don’t. That’s called intermittent reinforcement and is well below taking responsibility 100% of the time which means in each instance you have an urge to eat going all out to make sure you’re hungry, making a satisfying (most of the time healthy) choice, and stopping when you’re full or satisfied.

Remember, if you don’t take 100% responsibility, you can’t expect to get a 100% return.

Best,

Karen

http://www.karenrkoenig.com/

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