That’s what a real QB guru looks like. Now, Sadhguru didn’t teach Brady how to throw a perfect spiral, but I’m confident that Brady picked up a few tools from him to craft Brady’s legendary mindset.

I picked up both Karma and Inner Engineering and the wisdom in these books is outstanding. I’m pumped to share what I’ve learned with you this week to round out your Sunday night.

I thought about writing five things I learned from Sadhguru. However, there was one topic that kept repeating itself in my head. I made the decision to go deep on that topic: responsibility. Here we go!

Responsibility = Response Ability

Sadhguru poses the question: who is responsible for the way you are right now? Is it your significant other? Your boss? Your parents? Your friends?

If you ask someone, why they’re in the situation they’re in, often times, we’ll hear the story “when i was a kid, my parents….” 

Humans are experts at passing the buck which only leads us to unhappiness. What this means is that we let our experience of life be determined by our circumstances, instead of by us.

I think we all want to be in the driver seat of our life. Responsibility is the key to putting us there.

Rethinking Responsibility

What does responsibility mean to you? Oftentimes, we think responsibility means taking on burdens or accepting blame.

Responsibility simply means your ability to respond.

If you choose to be responsible, you have the ability to respond. If you choose not to be responsible, you don’t have the ability to respond. It’s that simple.

If you want to change, all you have to understand is that you’re responsible for everything that you are and everything you’re not.

You physically respond to your environment all the time. Even by just breathing, you’re responding to the trees around you as you exhale what they inhale and vice versa.

We already physically respond to the universe, it’s about getting our thoughts and emotions to follow the course.

For example, if a colleague at work does something you don’t like. You could reactively send a message or lose your cool.

Or, you could take a second to consciously respond. And once you take responsibility, you’ll start looking at ways to fix the situation and naturally find yourself looking for solutions.

If you’re down 28-3 in a Super Bowl, are you going to reactively blame your teammates or take full responsibility of the situation and respond?

Two Misconceptions about Responsibility

The opposite of responsibility

The opposite of responsibility is reactivity. If you’re reactive, you’re trapped. If you’re responsible, you’re free.

A common reaction is anger which causes unintelligent action. Anger is self-defeating. You’ll more than likely find you did the most life-negative things and outright dumb things when you were angry.

How do you limit reactiveness? You have to take on 100% responsibility. And if you do that, you’ll realize you have the freedom to create yourself the way you want to instead of reacting to a situation in a way that doesn’t reflect the person you want to be.

Boundaries

Do you ever think that something falls outside your responsibility? If you have limited responsibility, you have boundaries. Maybe when you’re at work or when you see a piece of trash at the beach, you tell yourself “that’s not my job”. PSA: keep Venice Beach clean!

If you restrict your ability to respond, you can’t move past your boundaries. Essentially, you’re accepting that you cannot take action which leads to you becoming resentful and angry. We don’t want that!

You have to realize that your ability to respond is limitless which opens you up to higher and higher levels of freedom.

What does karma have to do with it?

Sadhguru’s take on karma is polarizing. That karma isn’t an eye for an eye or the way we think about it normally.

Karma is your memory of life. Karma is made up of the bags of habits, preconceived notions, and traumas we carry with us. If you take a step back, you’ll realize that these all only live in the past.

Acknowledging karma means that you see that your life as 100% the result of your actions and doings. This means you can’t blame anyone for your situation or your circumstances and that YOU have the power and freedom to change.

Once you start to see your life as self-created instead of the result of your traumas or things that you happened to you- you’ll move towards freedom.

The next step is to let go of the past. Come into the present moment, which is all that matters.

Finally, live consciously and with full responsibility. Once you do that, you’re ready to create your life the way you want it to be.

Action Items

• When something doesn’t go your way this week, take a second to think of your response-ability. Instead of reacting, remind yourself of your ability to respond and consciously find solutions

• Reflect on some things in your life that you’re not taking responsibility for? How can you start taking responsibility today?

• Take a walk and be intentful. Think about how your body absorbs the sunlight, the air from the trees, and bring yourself into the present moment.

  • Try to let any thoughts sift out and be in the current moment as much as you can. This should feel mediative to you if done right.

That’s it. Have a great week and I’ll see you next Sunday!