Radical Ownership

Happy Friday Tribe! I’m so grateful that you are here! What have you been doing today? Have you been cleaning the house? Busy all day at work? Maybe getting the kids to the 50th place they have to be today while simultaneously trying to figure out what the hell is for dinner?

If you feel like you are doing three thousand things at once and still somehow are behind — I feel ya. I get it. I’ve been so overwhelmed lately in so many areas of my life. There are a million things I want to do with my business, my clients, my relationships, my home, my body, my health. It’s exhausting to think about all at once. That’s why I recently took the time to write it all down.

I thought of everything that I wanted to do in the next month and literally wrote it all down on a piece of paper. Then I took that piece of paper and decided exactly what I wanted to accomplish this week out of all those goals. And guys, you won’t believe what happened. I got excited. All of the anger, stress, and anxiety I had been feeling about my eternal to-do list evaporated and was replaced with pure excitement. 

Then it hit me — the reason for this magical transformation of my attitude. It was because I was taking radical ownership of every single area of my life. My physical body, my relationship, my finances, my home: I was taking radical responsibility and radical ownership for all of it. 

That’s it. That’s the difference between being consumed by anxiety about the things you have to do and between absolutely psyched about them. This week on Episode 71 of The Jenn Kennedy Show, we are going to talk about this radical ownership: what it is, how to get it, and how it can completely turn your life upside down. 

What Is Radical Responsibility and Radical Ownership?

Guys, you know that feeling I’m talking about. The feeling that you’re wearing 87 million hats and overwhelmed with every single one of them. You’re thinking, “Oh my God, what am I going to do?” And then you don’t do anything. You can’t do anything because you’re too overwhelmed with everything to be productive! At that point, I usually shut down, as I know is probably the case for many people. 

But what if we decide to turn this unproductive anxiety and stress into something beautiful and exciting? That’s what the concept of radical responsibility and radical ownership is. It is taking charge of your life and the things you have to do and being in control of them instead of letting them control you. 

I know I’ve been throwing these terms around a lot, so let’s define them. Radical responsibility is when you decide that you are the one who is going to take responsibility for the things you need to do. It’s when you look in the mirror and say, “Ok, this shit is up to me.” Once you have taken radical responsibility for something, then you can take radical ownership of it.

So what’s radical ownership? It is when you put that radical responsibility into action. You have a plan, and you own the hell out of it. You take the initiative, and you realize that you and only you are responsible for executing your plan.. You are the one that's accountable for it all. 

A good example of radical ownership can be seen in my own personal experience with my health. The fact is, I’m going through a couple of health issues right now that are entirely out of my control. But just because my situation is out of my control does not mean I can’t take radical ownership of my physical body and my life! I am choosing to take radical ownership of this situation by getting to bed on time. I have a strong nighttime routine. I’m getting eight to nine hours of sleep every single night. I’m going to start my new gym routine next week. I’m cooking all of my food. I’m still taking ownership of my body and controlling what I can control. I’m not letting myself slip. 

Why You Need to Stop Dropping the Ball on Yourself 

As people living in 2020 in this fast-paced, crazy-ass world in which we live, we often have to let something slip to survive our busy lives. So I have a question for you. When you have a million things on your plate, what’s the thing you let slip? It's usually yourself, right? We typically let ourselves slip because we think we’ll just bounce back up. 

Think of every responsibility you have as balls that you are juggling in your hands. Some of these balls are glass, and some are rubber. So your relationships, your house, and yourself — these are all rubber balls. They can be dropped and picked back up. But the rest of the balls are glass. Drop them, and they break. Maybe work is a glass ball — that one deadline that needs to be done ASAP no matter what. Or maybe a glass ball is your kids. Which ball are you going to drop? The rubber one obviously. We always drop ourselves.

And then we wonder, “Why am I tired? Why am I depressed or anxious? Why can’t I lose weight? Why do I hate my body? The answer is simple. It’s because you’re dropping the damn ball on yourself every single day. You’re dropping the ball on yourself and then expecting it to just bounce back up into your hands. And when it doesn’t, everything falls apart, and you are stuck in a cycle of being overwhelmed and stressed. 

The truth is, you and your family and your relationships are the only balls that should be glass; the rest should all be rubber. And you should be the biggest glass ball of them all! You should be the last thing that you ever drop. You have to take radical ownership of the fact that you are a glass ball, the foundation of your entire life. Remind yourself of this: you are the most important thing in your life. 

You have the responsibility to take radical ownership of that fact, and not doing so is a disservice to the life you have been given. We only have one! What the hell are we doing when we are just skating by hating ourselves? So what if we took radical ownership of our lives and stopped dropping the ball on ourselves? Think about what that would look like! I’m telling you — it will turn your whole life upside down. 

How Taking Radical Ownership Can Turn Your Life Upside Down  

Let’s take a look at what this radical ownership looks like. First off, it’s not easy. It takes hard work. It takes initiative, accountability, and introspection to realize that you are the only one responsible for executing the things you want to do. 

Are you doing this? Are you educating yourself and trying to change every single day? Or are you stuck in the loop of dropping the rubber ball of yourself and just setting goals that never come to fruition? I know you have goals. But you cannot just prop them up in fantasy land, wishing that maybe one day they will magically become a reality. 

Let me tell you now, this is not going to happen. If you don’t take radical responsibility and ownership for yourself and your goals, they will not happen by accident. But what happens if you do take this radical ownership? 

Your life turns upside down. Literally. Think of your life as a pyramid, with the things you prioritize being the largest sector at the bottom of the pyramid. Right now, you are probably putting your work, your bills, and other random shit on the bottom as the foundation of your life. And you’re probably setting yourself on the top. But when you take radical ownership and flip that pyramid over, you become the bottom. 

That’s when things change. When you are at the bottom of your pyramid, guess what happens? You start to prioritize the things that you need to be successful. And then everything else falls into place. If you have taken radical ownership of yourself, you have a plan, and you can execute that plan. You own the hell out of your body: your food intake, your energy, your sleep, your confidence, your self-development. You control your mindset, habits, and routine.  

And guess what comes next: you start getting promoted because you are a better worker. You see your relationship thrive because you are putting yourself first and loving yourself, which gives you the confidence to naturally be a better partner. You are in more control of your finances, and they can flourish. You are more present with the people that you love. You have better relationships with your friends because your free time opens up. 

Guys, these aren’t just hypothetical results. This shit happens. It happened in my life, and it can happen in yours. It all just starts with taking radical responsibility and radical ownership of your life. It starts with looking at all of the hats you are wearing, the balls you are juggling, and putting yourself first as a glass ball that cannot be dropped. 

You only have one life — one shot at happiness, success, confidence, fulfillment, abundance. You only have one chance to be obsessed with your body and your life. Are you taking radical ownership of it? Or are you letting all of the other balls you are juggling take control and precedence over what matters most? At the end of the day, it’s your choice. 

Go listen to this episode, and I hope it helps you choose the option of radical ownership. I hope it lights a fire under your ass to start taking some radical responsibility and see how it can totally turn your life upside down in the best way possible. 

I love you guys, and I'll catch you next time!