he victim by using disempowering self-talk phrases such as, “Why me?” “It’s all their fault.” “God must hate me.” Etc. This is classic victim talk which may win sympathy for their position by themselves and others, but it also removes all the responsibility that they have from changing their desiOften the most difficult parts of taking those first steps towards the path to success is not with the actual execution of the plan, but rather in your ability to take responsibility for your life. Jack Canfield, in his book the Success Principles, states a simple formula that you can use in taking responsibility for your life and for changing the desire outcome that you want in your own life. That formula is E + R = O. This stands for Event + Response = Outcome. This article will describe this formula so that you might be able to apply it to your own life.

External Events and Our Responses to Them

The ‘E’ in Canfield’s formula stands for Event, which is your external environment that you have no control over. Events always remain an uncontrollable given in the equation because you have little or no control over what happens in the outside world. You have no control over a tornado that strikes. You have no control over a flood. You have no control over being at the wrong place at the wrong time during a robbery.

People will often focus and waste their energy on blaming or trying to control the events in their life. They jump at the chance to be the victim by using disempowering self-talk phrases such as, “Why me?” “It’s all their fault.” “God must hate me.” Etc. This is classic victim talk which may win sympathy for their position by themselves and others, but it also removes all the responsibility that they have from changing their desi

responsibility for your life and for changing the desire outcome that you want in your own life. That formula is E + R = O. This stands for Event + Response = Outcome. This article will describe this formula so that you might be able to apply it to your own life.

External Events and Our Responses to Them

The ‘E’ in Canfield’s formula stands for Event, which is your external environment that you have no control over. Events always remain an uncontrollable given in the equation because you have little or no control over what happens in the outside world. You have no control over a tornado that strikes. You have no control over a flood. You have no control over being at the wrong place at the wrong time during a robbery.

People will often focus and waste their energy on blaming or trying to control the events in their life. They jump at the chance to be the victim by using disempowering self-talk phrases such as, “Why me?” “It’s all their fault.” “God must hate me.” Etc. This is classic victim talk which may win sympathy for their position by themselves and others, but it also removes all the responsibility that they have from changing their desi

r Responses to Them

The ‘E’ in Canfield’s formula stands for Event, which is your external environment that you have no control over. Events always remain an uncontrollable given in the equation because you have little or no control over what happens in the outside world. You have no control over a tornado that strikes. You have no control over a flood. You have no control over being at the wrong place at the wrong time during a robbery.

People will often focus and waste their energy on blaming or trying to control the events in their life. They jump at the chance to be the victim by using disempowering self-talk phrases such as, “Why me?” “It’s all their fault.” “God must hate me.” Etc. This is classic victim talk which may win sympathy for their position by themselves and others, but it also removes all the responsibility that they have from changing their desi

ntrol over a tornado that strikes. You have no control over a flood. You have no control over being at the wrong place at the wrong time during a robbery.

People will often focus and waste their energy on blaming or trying to control the events in their life. They jump at the chance to be the victim by using disempowering self-talk phrases such as, “Why me?” “It’s all their fault.” “God must hate me.” Etc. This is classic victim talk which may win sympathy for their position by themselves and others, but it also removes all the responsibility that they have from changing their desi

he victim by using disempowering self-talk phrases such as, “Why me?” “It’s all their fault.” “God must hate me.” Etc. This is classic victim talk which may win sympathy for their position by themselves and others, but it also removes all the responsibility that they have from changing their desired outcome for the better.

E +R = O in Action

To illustrate how the success equation works, let us attach some hypothetical numbers to this equation. Let us say that ‘Events’ equals one and ‘Response’ equals one. Therefore, our ‘Outcome’ must equal two. 1 + 1 = 2. Okay, so let’s say that you are not satisfied with the outcome being a two. Perhaps you want that outcome to be a four. You will note that the E (Events) in the equation cannot be changed because that is beyond our control. Therefore, the only variable that we can manipulate to bring about the desired outcome is our response. So we need to change our response from a one to a three in order for that equation to balance out correctly.

Outcome-Directed Response

Throughout our lives, we will inevitably come across challenges and roadblocks that impede our way towards success. That’s just a part of life and it happens to everyone and it’s simply impossible to avoid them. What we do have total control over in our own lives is how we choose to respond to those events that happen. For example, imagine that you are walking down a busy corridor and you bump into somebody walking pas