Brian Johnson presents Jack Canfield’s number-one success principle: take 100% responsibility for your life. He explains Canfield’s formula E + R = O (Event plus Response equals Outcome), contrasts victim thinking (E = O), and illustrates the point with a 1994 Los Angeles earthquake anecdote about two commuters who responded very differently. The talk closes by encouraging listeners to consciously choose responses and treat responsibility as a game.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic one. In our last several plus ones, we've been talking about success. We started with some modern scientific wisdom on the subject. Then we went old school. Then we did some spiritual goodness. Then we did a successful search for success in the Heroic app. Have you done a search on your favorite topic yet before talking about true success and how to win the ultimate game of life by activating our soul force? Today, as promised, we're going to talk about Jack Canfield's success principles. In fact, we're going to talk about his number one success principle. First, a little context. Jack Canfield is the creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. He's been a leader in the self development world for decades. In the success principles, he distills the 64 timeless principles used by successful men and women throughout history to as per the subtitle of the book, show us how to get from where you are to where you want to be. Now for the number one principle. Canfield tells us, and I quote, it is time to stop looking outside yourself for the answers to why you haven't created the life and results you want. For it is you who creates the quality of the life you lead and the results you produce. You. No one else. To achieve major success in life, to achieve those things that are most important to you, you must assume 100% responsibility for your life. Nothing less will do. End quote. Note, all the great teachers would agree. All caps. Canfield's number one principle is Covey's number one habit. It's the essence of ancient Stoicism. It's rule number one of creating a great life. We need to become the hero of our lives and we simply can't do that if we're acting like a victim. Period. Now Canfield shares a formula to help us get the idea right. E plus R equals O. The event plus our response equals the outcome. Ero an event happens. The event is in itself neutral. Buddhists would say that the event is empty of meaning. Check out the link to A plus one on that. So again, the event happens and we respond. We need to know that we always have a choice as to how we respond, and it's always our response that determines the outcome. Of course, when we're in victim mode, we think the equation goes E equals O. Something happens, then there's an inevitable outcome. That of course is not true. And Canfield shares a simple story to bring home his point. After the earthquakes in 1994 in Los Angeles, I happen to be in Los Angeles and I can still vividly remember being essentially thrown out of my bed in Westwood, where I was attending ucla. One of the major freeways in LA took a beating after that earthquake, so traffic was at a near standstill and some news reporters were knocking on commuters windows asking them what they thought. The first person, Canfield tells us, was angry and complaining about the fires and the floods and the earthquakes and how much they hated California. Whiny, yadda yadda yadda. The second person was beamingly happy and said she left for work at 5am to do her best to get to work on time and knowing there'd be some delays. She brought some Spanish language learning tapes, plus a book and a lunch and a full thermos. Life was good. And that's today's plus one event plus response equals outcome. How are you responding to the events in your Life? Remember principle number one and take 100% responsibility for your life. Make it a game. See how you can create better and better outcomes by more and more consciously choosing your responses to the events in your life today.
