Is it time you did a “Performance Review”?

No, I am not talking about the type of performance review done by your boss.

A bespoke performance review on yourself is one of many things that we need to regularly assess and measure our progress.

I suggest you regularly ask yourself, how much do ‘I own it’. If this isn’t 100%, then you have got some work to do.

To ‘own it’ is far reaching and means a lot more than most people ever realize. When you own your world, there is no room for blaming your partner, your employer, the government, the city council, your staff or anyone else. So here are nine things that you need to own as your own. Your:

• Values – these need to be aligned with who you are and who you want to be.
• Aspirations and goals – otherwise you will be part of someone else’s.
• Opinions and thoughts – this is who you are and your difference.
• Situation – only then can you really succeed.
• Consequences – this is the automatic result of owning your situation.
• Opportunities – when you see these as yours, you are free to act on them.
• Success – learn to accept it and do something good with the energy created.
• Learning – a result of doing stuff, it can be expensive but valuable.
• Mistakes – Sometimes this involves putting it right, but it is always worth it.

If you can imagine a world where everyone owned their circumstances, this would mean there would be less expectation on government departments to rescue those that don’t choose to take responsibility for themselves. We need a mindset change to encourage everyone to plan to own their future circumstance by continuing education, looking after their health and fitness, their well-being and nutrition and the habits they form. This only strengthens our ability to support our community, our neighbours and friends and anyone else needing a hand when things go wrong.
The key to owning your circumstance is to anticipate the importance of doing the work in advance. For example, everyone knows that smoking is bad for their health, but they still choose to continue; everyone knows they are eating too much of the wrong food and not exercising enough as they continue to put on multiples of 5kg after 5kg; and the majority of people know how important it is to get the best education they can, yet we have such a high truancy rate. We all have to do more to encourage people that aren’t currently taking responsibility for their actions and their circumstances. It is far better than picking up the pieces after.

I absolutely realise there are people that are less fortunate and have been dealt an unlucky hand. The irony is that many of these people own their circumstance and live a significantly better and more meaningful life because of it.

You may ask, how can I make any difference when we need to see such a large paradigm change? We can all build cultures in our work places where there is an uncompromising importance put on ‘owning it’. It starts with good leadership and encouragement for those within our sphere of influence, to step up. This means holding everyone that chooses not to, accountable and calling them out. We all influence the people we work for, the people we work with, our peers, suppliers and our children. So by encouraging more accountability and ownership, we can make a difference. We all need to do it consistently to make a change which is good for our business, the individuals we encourage and our community, so we can better help those that can’t do it on their own through no fault of their own.