In life, when the competition starts have yourself a good strategy and know the rules of the game or the bad guys will be dividing up what used to be yours. How many of you walk through life simply reacting, going from day to day and not reaching your full potential? Step back and have a self check of how you are living, since only you are accountable for your own life.

The only person you can change and control is you. Quit blaming your circumstances and others for any misfortune that may have come about and get into the driving seat of your life. What are you going to do that will catapult you out of your comfort zone? What legacy are you going to leave in this life?

Visualise your funeral, what are people saying about you? Now work backwards and think about what you need to do to create this impact and perception. Learn to pay attention to opportunities that will help create this overall perception that you desire. Are they passing by like ships in the night? Well wake up and smell the coffee, grab them because if you don’t somebody else will.

When you choose the behaviour you choose the consequences. What choices have you made that set you up for an outcome that you did not want or need? What worked (retain) and what didn’t (eliminate). Separate the wheat from the shaft in life and be careful and discriminating about where and from whom you accept input. It is up to you to choose solid, reliable teachers. Not so you can substitute their thinking for your own, but so you can add to your personal knowledge.

Who have you got around you? Are they exuding positive energy or negative? Remember that negative energy from others weighs you down. Successful people develop the ability to manage their state by not becoming emotionally attached to anything negative they hear. Negativity creates barriers that are a complete waste of time to jump over.

Remember, you don’t choose or manage your life in a vacuum, it happens in a context called the world. The world focuses on results, not intentions. No one really cares about the story, they just care about the outcome. There is a science to successful living, not to know it in this complex era is dangerous. Ask yourself, is the way that I am living, behaving and thinking, working or not?

You’ve got what it takes and you’re worth the effort it will take to find that truth and build a successful life, remember, nobody is going to do it for you, but it’s okay, you don’t need anything that you don’t have within you to do it.

You are accountable for your life, good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, happy or sad, fair or unfair, you own your life. If you don’t accept accountability you will misdiagnose every problem you have. If you misdiagnose every problem, you will mistreat, if you mistreat – things won’t get better, plain and simple. The quicker you understand, acknowledge and accept accountability for your life the quicker your results will be as you desire.