With great Responsibility comes great Power - The Power to Do.. Or, How to get Yourself to Do and avoid Regrets

We all have heard the saying, “With great power comes great responsibility”. But the other way round is equally important to remember. Especially at the start of anything.

Most of the times we run away from doing things because we don’t want to take the responsibility of our own success or failure. We would rather 'leave' it to chance. So that all the blame of the failure goes to ‘chance’. And not the definite actions we take.

That great idea you had in your mind about the next best product in the market but you didn’t follow up because of lack of time and resources, that’s now out in the market. The friends you wanted to meet but couldn’t because you had work in the office, they don’t call you to their gatherings now. That girl you wanted to talk to but didn’t because you were afraid she wouldn’t reciprocate the interest, is with someone else now. Good luck talking now.

But wait. What do you think happened? Why..? Because you ‘just couldn’t’? Because ‘luck’ had it? Because ‘life played it that way..’?

Let me tell you one thing. If you see, what this state of mind basically conveys is that you are certain about your failure. That you give your own success zero chance. In your thoughts (decisions). And in your actions. Wow! Way to go, champ..

If you can stop yourself from achieving your goals, what chance do you think you stand against the whole world?

But just by saying ‘it was not meant to be’ all the time doesn’t get you to the root cause. Most times, we are taking a conscious decision to not do something, get somewhere or have someone in our lives. It’s just that we deny it, later on. We always have our rotten ‘luck’ to blame. It’s handy, you know. Our rotten luck.

The truth is, luck can only take one this far. One needs to be near the finishing line to actually enable luck to take one over the line. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t. And sometimes, it really will not be meant to be. But the point is, you can’t sit at the starting line and cry foul over luck not taking you far enough. And that’s why, “Fortune favors the brave” and “God helps those who help themselves”.

Imagine yourself, lying on your deathbed in an hour and looking back at all the moments you just let go of your goals. Your responsibilities. Towards yourself. Time and again. All the regrets rushing in would be last thing you would want to deal with. Yeah, it wouldn’t matter after that. But whether it matters after you are gone, shouldn’t matter now! The regrets are sure to pop up. Go on and try visualizing it.

Remember,

Regrets are the difference between the value we perceived and the value that was

So, value yourself. Your goals. Take responsibility. Of your dreams. Of your journey. Of your plans. Of the opportunities that come your way. Of the vision to be able to identify these opportunities. Of being in the right state of mind to be able to do that. Of thinking and knowing enough to be in the right state. Of your reactions to events good and bad. And ultimately, of the decisions and the actions that you take. Until you are not ready to take up the responsibility, you are not ready to win.

Is that what you want, really? I didn’t think so.