Empower Someone by Letting Them Take Responsibility

Some people struggle with the fact that they are not always the cause of their problems. This often hinders them from taking full ownership.

No one would disagree that we aren’t the cause of all our problems. It is one of the truly tragic realities of living in a fallen world. The innocent are wounded. However, ultimately, in terms of solving the issue, fault is irrelevant. So here’s a much more helpful way to look at it: The person who cares about the problem owns the problem.

When we take responsibility for our lives in this way, we’re empowered to make changes. Ownership empowers us to act — to use our various skills to make plans, tackle a hurtful situation, or right a wrong. People who “own” their problems are people who can take initiative.

Ownership also gives us freedom. You are no longer a slave to the past, to false hope, to wishing someone would change, or to discouragement and passivity. You are free to try out answers, take risks, and take steps.

Ownership is, in fact, a blessing. It feels uncomfortable at first but pays off later. The other side of the coin, which is blame, is the opposite — a kind of curse. It feels good at first, but in time it ruins us. Technically, when we blame, we project all responsibility for a problem onto something or someone else. Ant it keeps us in bondage. That’s why everyone one of us needs to be aware of, and deal with, any tendencies to find fault, blame, excuse, minimize, or deny our responsibility to any given situation.