Tag Archives: taking responsibility

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Two Words That Will Dramatically Improve Your Shift Work Health.

If you’re desperately trying to find a way to improve your shift work health and you’re going round and round in circles going nowhere – then I’ve got two words for you.

Don’t worry I’m not going to swear at you – it’s called Taking Responsibility.

Because despite all of the things that frustrate you about your shift working job – for example the crazy and irregular hours that you work, taking responsibility is not only going to improve your shift work health – but your life as well.

You see five years ago I was in a bit of a rut. I was unhappy in my shift working job and my health was at an all-time low.

And then something happened.

A close friend of mine gave me a copy of a book called – The Success Principles: How To Get From Where You Are, To Where You Want To Be – by Jack Canfield.

Now at the time, the title of this book simply radiated with me. I read its contents like a woman possessed, but it was the first chapter that really struck a chord with me.

It was called – Taking 100% Responsibility for Your Life.

You see if you’re unhappy with your status quo right now, which is in your shift working job – then you need to do something about it.

That’s right – YOU.

You need to Take Responsibility for your actions, your attitude and your behaviours.

And nobody else can do this for you.

It’s about giving up all of your excuses, stop complaining and blaming others for your current circumstances.

One of my all time favourite quotes is from the late Jim Rohn …

“Your paycheck is not your employer’s responsibility, it’s your responsibility. Your employer has no control over your value, but you do.”

Pretty good don’t you think?

In fact I believe this quote is so good, I want you to read it again AND totally absorb the words.

“Your paycheck is not your employer’s responsibility, it’s your responsibility. Your employer has no control over your value, but you do.”

So whether you’re unhappy with your actual job, your lack of fitness or your weight, then you need to start changing your behaviour.

Whether it’s learning new skills, changing your diet, or exercising more frequently.

Because let’s be realistic here, sitting on the couch munching potato crisps after an early shift is not going to help you to lose weight. It’s only going to increase your weight and worse still, make you feel even more tired and fatigued than what you’re probably already feeling.

So start taking responsibility for your life. At the end of the day, your shift work health is not going to improve until you make the decision to do so.

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Have You Ever Missed A Flight?


Have you ever been in a mad rush to get to the airport and you ended up missing a flight?

Now even though this can be a tad bit frustrating, did you take responsibility for it?

You see I was at work today (which if you didnt’ know, I work at an airport), and I looked after a man that did just that. He arrived at the airport too late to get his bags checked-in so he ended up missing his flight. Fairly straight forward you would think.

But according to him, it was everybody elses fault except his own. Let me run through the reasons why he thought he missed the flight.

1. The queue of 5 people in front of him was too long. (Yep that’s right – five. We’re talking about a major Australian airport with a queue of just 5. Considering it’s normally 405 he was actually pretty lucky).

2. Nobody physically came and got him out of the queue at 5 minutes before the flight had closed. Bear in mind he arrived 7 minutes before flight closure.

3. His girlfriend got him to the airport late so it was her fault. (Apparently she’s always running late. Now I’m thinking a new girlfriend might be in order here …)
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4. Security wouldn’t let him take his running shoes with metal spikes on board as hand luggage. (Hmmm … I’m thinking this is a good thing …)

5. And nobody paged him by name to get him to the gate.

Now as you can see there is a distinct pattern happening here. At no point did he take responsibility for missing his flight. It was everybody elses fault except his own.

And that brings me to the reason for my post today.

You see if you’re not happy with where you are right now in your life, whether it’s your income, your level of debt, your relationships, your health or even your level of fitness … the only person who is responsible for this is YOU.

Yep that’s right – Nobody else but you.

You see in order for things to change, you have to change. You have to take 100% responsibility for your life – starting right now.

It’s quite unfortunate that most people convince themselves into thinking that external factors are the source of their failure, disappointment, and unhappiness.

External factors do not determine how you live. YOU are in complete control of the quality of your life, by either creating or allowing the circumstances you experience.

For example, if you’re a shift worker that is unhappy about your weight – it’s easy to blame your job for not being able to eat properly and having no energy to exercise. But the harsh reality is that your job is NOT the reason why you’re overweight. It’s an outcome of what you choose to eat and how you choose to move (or not move) – regardless of your work life.

So why not make a conscious effort to pre-plan healthy meals and snacks, and just begin to be more active! When most of us think of the word ‘exercise’ – we tend to break out in cold sweats at just the thought of going to the gym. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Exercise is just being active in some form, but most importantly – find something that you love to do – that way you will stick to it and reap the benefits from it.

You will begin to feel so much better that you will want to keep doing exercise as it also helps you to sleep better and cope with other things like stress.

So it’s time to stop blaming outside factors for your unhappiness.

When you realize that you—and only you—create your experiences, you’ll realize that you can un-create them and forge new experiences whenever you want.

You must take responsibility for your happiness and your unhappiness, your successes and your failures, your good times and your bad times.

As one of my favourite authors Jack Canfield would say …

1. Take 100% responsibility for your life. 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 face the uncomfortable and take risks in order to create the life they want to live.

2. Stop complaining. Look at what you are complaining about. “I’m too fat. I’m too tired. I can’t get out of debt. I won’t ever get a better job. I’ll never find a soulmate in life…” Really look at what you’re complaining about. More than likely you can do something about it. It’s not about other people, other things, or other events – just YOU.

So start adopting these techniques into your life and you will begin to notice that your life will start to change for the better. You will begin to “attract” positive people and positive outcomes into your life that were not there before.

And remember … It’s very exciting and empowering knowing that you are in control of your life. so go out and design it the way that you want it!

P.S – And please, please, please – get to the airport early!!