Perhaps like you my conversations the past few days have been dominated by war and peace. Putting aside my personal opinions about policy and America’s role in our world’s collective future, I humbly and confidently suggest that all of us...

1. Pray for peace; pray for the health and well being of
our service men and women and the civilian population of Iraq; and pray that our leaders act after being informed by positive values, visions and wisdom. An international prayer vigil has been scheduled for 11 AM EST on Tuesday morning, April 1st to pray for President George Bush, to open his heart and to bring him wisdom. I’ll be participating and humbly invite you to also do so.

2. With friends and family, with colleagues or if you insist on calling in to talk radio, practice using the language of outcomes, solutions and peace while avoiding or at least reducing any tendency to use the language of blame, of personal character assassination and of “the problem.” The quality of our individual and collective futures lives in our language.

In this eZine we’re continuing to offer perspectives from Balance Point’s Eight Elements of Personal and Organizational Effectiveness and this month its number three...

TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and own all of your results. Your entire experience of life will change for the better.

Comments and questions are welcome, quotes, ideas and websites that you find interesting are actively solicited.

Be extraordinary!

Robert

A Balance Point monthly eZine dedicated to assisting people in living extraordinary lives and creating extraordinary organizations.

We encourage you to forward this message to friends or colleagues who want to be more effective in working with people. They can subscribe to future issues and receive our free 23 page report “ Simple Truths and Enduring Values – The Eight Elements of Personal and Organizational Effectiveness,” at http://www.extraordinarypeople.com/ezine/subscribe.htm.

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In this issue:

• Feature: Take Responsibility
• Extraordinary Wisdom Quotes of the Month
• Rave Recommendations from Balance Point
• Extraordinary Living Action Steps

The movie Forrest Gump begins and ends with Forrest, a
man of limited measurable intelligence **and** unlimited
wisdom . . . wondering aloud about whether our lives turn
out they way they do through our choices or is it fate?

Author Simone Weil says that ““Liberty, taking the word in
its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose.”

Does freedom of choice really exist? Are we really the
authors of our own lives? Or is choice an illusion? Maybe
we only seem to choose what to do and where to go.
Maybe in reality our actions, our feelings, and even our
thoughts are controlled by circumstances, one event
leading to the next mechanically, like a line of dominos.

There are eloquent philosophical arguments for free will,
and equally eloquent arguments for determinism, for fate.
What might be a lot more useful than philosophy is to ask
yourself: if there were two ways of approaching your life,
which one will maximize your feelings of personal power,
autonomy, freedom, enthusiasm, and self worth?

One is living as though you have the power to choose what
happens in your life - taking responsibility for your life.
Another is living as though you have no choice, as though
you are just a victim, a pawn in somebody else’s game.

How you answer this question will have a powerful impact
on your moment-to-moment experience of life-right now.
Read on to the Extraordinary Living Action Steps for some
ways of being and doing practiced by every super
successful person I know. How’s that for a teaser?

Our theme this month is “Take Responsibility” so here are a few of my favorite quotes on that subject.

My friend and mentor Jim Warner is an incredible resource
to people in “mid career” or “mid life” transitions. I highly
recommend both his book and his Nightingale Conant
audio program.

“Aspirations of Greatness” is a straight-talking, inspiring
book on navigating life transition, written by a successful
entrepreneur who faced and overcame his own midlife
malaise. Based on the intimate case studies of 600
high-profile leaders, “Aspirations of Greatness”, is targeted
to the heart and soul of men and women who struggle with,
"Is this all there is?" and "How do I feel good again?"

The book offers proven strategies that guide readers toward
inner peace and joy, healthier, more intimate relationships
with loved ones, and a passionate connection with their
ultimate purpose in life.

You can order at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471443980/oncourseinter-20/002-2061245-5132060

(if this link is too long, please cut and paste or go to the
Amazon.com site and do a search for the book)

Choosing Responsibility

1. If you operate as if you have choice (the responsible
position), you automatically increase your sense of
empowerment, of control over your own destiny, of integrity
and self-esteem. If you operate as if you are a victim of
circumstances, or destiny, or fate, or your genetic
programming, you automatically increase your sense of
weakness, helplessness, powerlessness, and your sense
of being out of control.

2. Choice is an essential component of responsibility.
Being a victim and assigning blame is the flip side. When
you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame
the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may
need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame
the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or
family or colleagues, we tend to blame the other person.
Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to
make yourself right using reason and argument.

3. If you take personal responsibility and choose to
understand, and you show that you understand, you can
love, and the situation will change. British playright and
practical philosopher George Bernard Shaw said that
“People are always blaming their circumstances for what
they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who
get on in the world are the people who get up and look for
the circumstances they want and if they can't find them,
make them.” It’s a liberating and powerful idea to take full
responsibility for your experience of your life.

Wishing you an Extraordinary Life and Extraordinary Organizations,

Robert

Robert White
Balance Point

P. O. Box 40405
Denver , CO 80204
Phone: 1-425-803-0303
E-mail: Robert@BalancePointInternational.com

http://www.BalancePointInternational.com

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