What is radical self-responsibility?
Radical self-responsibility is the acceptance and understanding of the fact that the circumstances and outcomes in your life are ultimately your responsibility to act upon, control, steer, and create for yourself. Radical self-responsibility demands that we release the rest of the world outside of ourselves from the blame or fault associated with failure or negative circumstances in our lives.
As a younger man, I didn’t understand the concept of radical self-responsibility—to any degree whatsoever.
I was constantly complaining.
When bad things happened to me in life, I would pretty much always blame other people—family members, the government, my boss, my job, my friends, my partner, or really just anyone else for my misfortune, other than myself.
This was an incredibly damaging philosophy and way of being for my life, as well as for the people around me.
See, when we accept full ownership of our experiences in life, and when we take full ownership and responsibility for all of our problems, we do two things.
- We do the heavy lifting work of bearing our own burdens in life.
- We give ourselves the power to fix our problems, deploy solutions, and create the destiny we truly desire.
And this is what radical self-responsibility is all about.
So let’s talk about how to embrace it in your own life, starting today.
Here’s my 10-step alpha mentality method.
Note: If you’re interested in the content matter of this post, then you’ll definitely be interested in our master guide to minding your business. Make sure to check that out to get a complete rundown of the entire ‘minding your business’ part of the alpha process, from beginning to end.
10 Keys To Embracing Radical Self Responsibility
1. Accept Full Ownership For Your Life And Existence
Understand that it’s in your own best self-interest as an alpha to:
- Think of everything as being your fault
- Blame yourself for every outcome
- Expect nobody to help you but yourself
It isn’t easy to accept full ownership for the stuff that’s going on in your life.
We all like to take credit for the good parts, but we often try to blame outside sources for the bad parts.
So starting today, accept full ownership over your life and existence.
2. Let Go Of The Idea That You’re Entitled To Anything
Often in this modern world, we live in a mindset where people feel entitled to a good life.
But this is a false idea, and it’s very destructive.
You’re not entitled to anything, according to the chaotic and entropic laws of the universe.
If you have the opportunity to live any kind of life, it’s in your best interest to think of it like this—that you have a responsibility to just be grateful for it, and to do your best to live it to its fullest potential.
3. Let Go Of The Idea That Anyone (The Universe, God, Your Parents, etc.) Owes You Anything Just For Being Alive
Being alive and getting the opportunity to live the life you want, do the things you want, have the things you want to have, etc. isn’t a guarantee or a given.
It’s actually incredibly rare to get to live even one day as a human in the great expanse of the vast, seemingly infinite span of time and the cosmos.
The truth is that nobody owes you anything for being a human being and being alive.
Just by being alive, you’ve already virtually won the lottery.
Therefore, it’s in your own best interest to see every day as being nothing more than an amazing opportunity to do very awesome stuff. That’s it. Nobody owes you anything.
But you DO have the power to create an amazing life for yourself.
And that, alone, is pretty amazing!
4. Recognize That Your Life Is Miraculous
Life is truly a miracle.
I’m not sure how life started in our universe, but I’m really glad that it did—because every single day, I get the opportunity to live my life exactly how I want.
Every single day that I wake up, I’m given the chance to make the most of this existence.
Every day, I’m given a miraculous opportunity to try to make my life better, improve my health and wellness, and succeed at the things that matter to me.
A lot of people make themselves miserable and give away all of their power by trying to blame the bad stuff on everyone else.
Listen, I get it.
Sometimes, there are circumstances that aren’t going to work out very well for you.
And yes, walking away from bad circumstances and finding a way to escape them is part of the journey.
But listen, nobody owes you anything—and you’re not entitled to anything.
If you want anything good to happen to your already miraculous life, it’s completely within the scope of your responsibility to make that happen.
Life is miraculous.
That’s truly enough of a blessing that it should cause us to practice an immense amount of gratitude.
If we want anything extra, we can create it ourselves under our own power.
And it’s also crucial that we recognize this power (to create our destiny) as no less miraculous.
5. Understand That If You Don’t Seize The Opportunity To Create An Amazing Life, It Just Won’t Happen
A lot of people think that humans should be guaranteed a good life just because they’re human, because they live in a free country, because there’s a government, because they have parents etc.
But this is also false.
The truth is that if you don’t take full responsibility for creating an amazing life, you probably won’t have one—no matter how good the people around you are.
First of all, nobody’s going to keep investing in a mooch (not for very long, anyway).
And second of all, it’s nobody else’s responsibility to make your life good.
That responsibility (and that power) belongs completely to you!
6. Understand That You Should Only Expect Other Humans To Do What Is In Their Own Best Interest, And To Act According To Their Natural Behavior Patterns
When we expect other humans to sacrifice for themselves, or to put themselves in a worse place to elevate us, not only is this selfish and irrational, but it’s also nonsensical and unrealistic.
We should not only expect, but celebrate when other humans do what is best for them.
Then, we should also do what is best for us—and we can all work on making our lives awesome together, all moving in a better direction under our own power.
This is the true alpha way.
This isn’t to say that we can’t help each other.
But when we help each other, it should be on a cooperative basis.
Let’s be really, really honest—other people should probably only help you if there’s going to be at least a little bit of something in it for them as well.
I’m not trying to discourage charity or simply doing good deeds. I’m saying that the truly alpha way to think and live is to act as if you NEVER expect anyone to do any favors for you, or to give you any handouts.
7. Understand That You Can Actually Waste Your Opportunity To Create An Amazing Destiny If You Rely On Other People To Do It For You
I hate to say it, but there is absolutely such a thing as a wasted life.
Life is full of opportunity.
And if you don’t seize those opportunities and take responsibility for pursuing them, you’re going to waste them.
It makes me very sad when I think about the fact that I wasted so much time in my 20s acting like a beta and not working to succeed in life as much as I should have.
Thankfully, I’ve learned my lesson—and now I strive to make the most of every single day and opportunity.
But listen, the more time we waste and the more opportunities we waste—the worse our lives are going to be.
And this is totally up to us as individuals.
Only you can create an amazing life, and only you can waste the chance to do so.
And every single day, only you get to choose which path you’re going to take.
8. Accept That Even Bad Circumstances Are Better Than No Circumstances
Listen, I totally understand that it sucks to be in pain.
It sucks to suffer.
I hate the fact that some humans have to live with incredibly challenging circumstances.
I hate the fact that we have to deal with things like hunger, pain, heartbreak, sickness, disease, injuries, etc.
Human life is rare and fragile.
All it takes is a couple of things to go wrong, and our very sensitive and delicate lives can easily be snuffed out.
It doesn’t take a lot of pressure to cause a great deal of suffering.
With that being said, it’s also important to understand that when you’re going through hard times, it’s always in your best interest to realize that even though you’re going through hard times now, at least you’re still alive—and at least you still have the opportunity to create a better life tomorrow.
And it’s also crucial that you continue to take full responsibility for this journey for yourself.
Listen, I get it—sometimes life deals us a shit hand.
But the fact of the matter is that just by being alive and getting the chance to live, you’re already miraculously fortunate.
Use this as a positive, and empower yourself to keep making life better.
9. Be Massively Grateful For Your Life And Existence—Even In Situations That Don’t Seem Ideal
There’s no such thing as an ‘ideal’ situation for humans.
Most of us are born into some kind of difficulty.
And honestly, even if you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you’re probably going to deal with a whole different set of problems and issues as a result of that as well.
Difficulties, challenges, and hardships of some sort are always a guarantee in life.
However, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be massively grateful for the opportunity to try.
It doesn’t have to be perfect to be awesome.
You have the power to wake up and make your life as awesome as you want it to be.
You even have the power to fail, and to get up and try again.
So practice gratitude for all of these awesome opportunities we get every single day, despite the fact that they aren’t perfect.
10. Always Commit To Continuing To Strive For A Better Life, Better Outcomes, And Better Results
At the end of the day, we should always be focused on making things better.
This is why I believe so much in the alpha mentality, and why this ‘mode of being’ and ‘way of living’ has helped me to improve my life—and continues to do so every single day.
We have a responsibility to strive every day to make life better for ourselves, as well as for our tribe, family, circle, and community.
Do not neglect this crucial opportunity.
Don’t waste your life by stagnating and deteriorating.
Always keep moving forward, and always work on improving yourself and your circumstances.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this post has helped you to understand the ins and outs of how to embrace radical self-responsibility in this life as an alpha.
It’s truly important. And if you take these alpha tenets to heart, they’ll be sure to help you carve out a better, happier, more successful, more fulfilling life for yourself.
You can do it.
Now get out there and make it happen.
Go with grace, my friends. And never give up your power.
Joshua K. Sigafus