See Yourself as Self-Employed

Accept complete, 100% responsibility for everything you are and everything you will ever be. Refuse to make excuses or to blame other people for your problems or shortcomings. Stop complaining about things in your life that you're not happy about. Refuse to criticize other people for anything. You are responsible. If there's something in your life that you don't like, it's up to you to do something about it. But you are in charge.

The top three percent of Americans see themselves as self-employed, no matter who signs their pay cheque. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to ever think that you work for anyone else other than yourself. You are always self-employed. You are always the president of your own personal services corporation, no matter where you might be working at the moment. When you see yourself as self-employed, you develop the entrepreneur mentality. The mentality of the highly independent, self-responsible, self-starting individual. Instead of waiting for things to happen, you make things happen. You see yourself as the boss of your own life. You see yourself as completely in charge of your physical health, your financial well-being, your career, your relationships, your home, your car, and every element of your existence. This is the mindset of the truly excellent person.

Self-responsible people are intensely result-oriented. They take high levels of initiative. They volunteer for assignments and they're always asking for more responsibility. As a result, they become the most valuable and respected people in their organizations. They continually prepare themselves for positions of higher authority and positions in the future. And you should do the same.

Here's a question for you: if you were president for a day in your company, or were completely responsible for results where you work, what one change would you enact immediately? Whatever it is, write it down, make a plan, and begin on it today. This decision alone could change your life.

by Brian Tracy