MOTIVATION - Taking Responsibility for Our Failure

MOTIVATION – Taking Responsibility for Our Failure


By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC – June 2010


Oh dear – looks like I got the soap box out again. Clearly the whole thing on “Failure” has got me in a bit of a spin!

It seems to me that most people think of success or failure as either good or bad luck – that’s just so confusing. Surely your success is based on what you did that was right or what worked and your failure is based on what you did wrong or what didn’t work?

I mean think about it for a moment – when someone succeeds at something, they celebrate all that went before it, the hard work, the making of the right decisions, the planning and precision, the long hours and the sleepless nights. So how then, when there is failure does it become everyone else’s fault?

How could it possibly by the fault of the rand being too low, or economics or politics or the tax man or the 2010 World Cup? That’s just bizarre! The fact of the matter is that very few people want to take responsibility for their own actions. Very few people want to look at themselves and then admit that perhaps it was their very own actions (or non actions for that matter) that have caused their downfall. Very few people are prepared to accept that what they have done is their own fault.

Now here’s the problem – if you don’t admit to failure being your own fault, how on earth will you be able to correct whatever it is that you did wrong so that you don’t do it again? How on earth will you learn from your mistakes and go on to grow as an individual? How on earth will you ever learn to take responsibility for your actions or when you fail to act?

Part of your goals should be ensuring that you give and receive accolades when they are due and not only for others but for yourself as well. We are all very quick to grab the limelight when we have done something right but seldom that quick when we have done something wrong. Part of your goals should be being able to look at a situation that has gone wrong and take responsibility, learn from the mistake, make adjustments and move on.

Part of becoming the best person that you can be is to be able to dig deep, admit to what has happened, I promise you, you will feel all the better for it.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za