Take responsibility without taking it personally

There's a difference between taking responsibility and taking things personally. We can take responsibility for the quality of our relationships, for our environments, for how we show up in the world, without drowning in shame and blame. These are two entirely different things.

Taking responsibility means acknowledging our impact and our power to create change, as well as when we’ve created impacts that are unaligned with what we value. It means we recognize where we can improve and choose to evolve, all while showing compassion for ourselves and our human imperfections. Taking things personally means we make everything about our worth, turning every challenge into evidence that we're not whole. One empowers us to serve, the other paralyzes us and makes our energy a drain.

We can take full responsibility for how our actions shape the people, places, and things around us, knowing we're doing our best and continuing to grow to our best. We can care deeply about our impact without collapsing into shame when things are hard. Responsibility says, ‘What can I do differently?’ Taking it personally means, 'What's wrong with me?’ Only one of these questions leads somewhere useful.

What would change if you took full responsibility without taking it personally?