VN July 2023

Vetnuus | July 2023 32 I hope this article finds you and your families well and safe!!! Last month we discussed the importance of desire and willingness to achieve what you want – success! This month I will expand a little further into taking responsibility for your own progress. Here is a story to help demonstrate a principle: There once was a king who decided to do a little experiment. He had his men place a giant boulder right in the middle of the main street of his small town. The king disguised himself as a regular person to the general public and then hid near the boulder to see if anyone would try to move it out of the way. The first people he noticed spending a significant amount of time considering this new addition to the street were some wealthy merchants who walked by. The merchants walked around the boulder a few times and then proceeded to complain that the king hadn’t been maintaining the roads very well. Once they had expressed themselves, they disappeared amongst the people in the street. The next person to pass and pay any significant amount of attention to the huge boulder was a beggar , who seemed to be heading home with his arms full of food for his family. When the man noticed the boulder, he put his groceries down and attempted to move it out of everyone’s way. Nobody around him seemed interested in helping for various reasons, so it took him a while to move it, but he eventually succeeded. After the peasant finished, he didn’t look for acknowledgement from anybody, gathered up his groceries and was about to start walking back home. As he was about to start walking, he noticed a bag lying in the middle of the road , exactly in the middle of the space that the boulder had occupied a short while ago. He opened the bag to find that it was stuffed full of gold coins. Furthermore, the bag came along with a letter from the king saying that the gold was a reward for the peasant to keep. The king’s reasoning for giving the gold to the beggar was that this gift was for the peasant who had taken the time and energy to move the boulder out of the road for the convenience of others who would be travelling the road in the future. What is the moral of this story? : The beggar was taught by the king that every obstacle you face offers an opportunity to improve. If you’re able to push through challenging moments, you may end up being much better off than you were before you started trying. I think there is also a lesson on personal responsibility above. If you see a job ahead of you that you can do, don’t leave it for the next person to do. Rather, step up and get the job done to help the people who come after you. We are all familiar with that feeling you get when you make a mistake and must tell someone at work, especially if it’s your boss. You probably pause to see if there is anything you can do to either undo the mistake, cover it up somehow, or shift the blame. The problem with avoiding personal responsibility (due to laziness or being overwhelmed with the magnitude of the mistake) is that it ultimately leads to a multitude of failures. You’re failing your team, you’re failing your own credibility, and you’re failing to take the opportunity to grow as a person. If you are like most people, it will be difficult to accept that your own decisions and actions have led to your troubles. However, the fundamental concept is that when you blame external circumstances or other people for your challenges, you are giving up the control that you need to steer your life in your desired direction. Take time to reflect on the outcomes of your work and develop a strategy to avoid making future mistakes. Once you become accountable in your own life for yourself, you will gain a sense of certainty and confidence within yourself, as well as clarity on what life should look like. You can then set an example for other people to follow while also showing people what kind of actions you expect from them in return. Next month, we will continue looking at responsibility and ideas for improving our quality of life and overall performance both at work and at home. v Influential Life Coaching THE KING’S STREET Dr Mats Abatzidis B.Sc. B.V.Sc. New Insights Certified VIP Life Coach mats.abatzidis@yahoo.co.za Founder of Influential Life Coaching http://www.matsaba.wix.com/drmatscoach Author of the published book“Life outside your comfort zone. Better and beyond all expectations”. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref =nb_sb_noss?url=search- alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Abatzidis http://www.life-coach-directory.co.za/mats-abatzidis Vet's Health I Life Coaching