The first part of this article is something that has been mentioned again at one of my Advanced Business Mentoring Group Sessions, so I thought I’d share it with you and add a couple of real life examples.

I don’t know the original source, but the concept is a simple one that could have been drafted by a number of people.

Above  =                               Take Responsibility

Below =                                    Lay Blame/Justify

People who live their life above the line accept the principle that they are responsible for their own life and will therefore shape their own destiny.

People who live their life below the line prefer to blame everyone else for everything that goes wrong and therefore absolve themselves from the responsibility of having to take any action to change or improve things.

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This reminded me of a tremendously inspirational book that I read a while ago, called “Man’s Search for Meaning” by an internationally renowned psychiatrist, Dr Victor E Frankl.

It is a very moving account of a man who endured years of suffering in a Nazi Concentration Camp in World War 2 and ultimately triumphantly survived, as a result of his attitude.

He asked himself why some people seemed to just give up and die, while others coped with incredible pain, yet they lived.

In a nutshell, he concluded that the ones who lived focused on what they would do after this hell had finally finished and the War was over. They instilled in themselves a belief in their own future and gave themselves a reason to live.

No matter how much his oppressors tried to depersonalize his soul, Frankl referred to “the last of human freedoms”, something his captors could never take away unless he let them, even though all of the familiar goals were snatched away…

…You alone retain the ability and the power to “choose one’s (your) attitude in a given set of circumstances”.

This theory was further supported by the US servicemen who survived being captured and tortured by the enemy in the Vietnam conflict. The survivors refused to let their current circumstances make them live below the line and give up on their dreams.

You don’t need to be captured though to realize this. Why not take a really good vacation instead?

Recharge your spirit and review your goals. Take responsibility, live above the line and have some fun.

Until next time, “Make Good Things Happen!”