Guest Post by Mark Roberts

Christopher Avery here. With pleasure I welcome Mark Roberts again to this blog. Mark is in management in a security services company in London, England. He shares a love for responsible leadership. Read more about Mark at the end of this post. Enjoy.

I’m actually writing this post from a place of freedom, it’s my choice, and I gain power from making that decisive decision.

But when we look into this a little deeper, we may realize just how much we are maybe not actually making decisions from a place of Responsibility.

I was very fortunate to meet an amazing man, John, a few weeks ago and spent a little time with him. We began to speak about life and living a life from a place of responsible freedom.

I could tell within a few minutes that this was quite an incredible man, a man clearly in charge of his life in every sense of the word.

He wasn’t beholden to anyone or anything, he was an extremely happy and positive man whose energy I could feel, and I found it so refreshing and humbling to be in his presence.

As we spoke further, he began to explain that in order for him to feel true freedom, he had to be in charge of all the choices he makes in life.

He explained that he took full ownership of his situations and ultimately in doing so took full responsibility.

This man had no bitterness, no jealousy or animosity toward anyone, he had a smile from ear to ear — all because he took ownership of his life from a place of responsibility.

This gave him such a sense of power and true unlimited freedom, because he takes ownership of the choices he makes each and every day.

Many of us operate from a place below the line, trapped in the Control Prison™ when it comes to living with the choices we make, whether this be in our working environments or our private lives.

But by Laying Blame or Justifying, our life isn’t where we’d like it or even expected it to be.

Many of you may feel shame and beat yourself up when you begin to realize that you are where your choices have brought you. I encourage you to stop doing that right now.

Until we learn to operate from a place of Responsibility and experience the power in knowing that the choices we make are ours to own, then we’ll be forever falling short.

This man is one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of crossing paths with, his unbelievable energy and true freedom spoke volumes to me, and the most amazing thing about this man is that he is homeless. He has actually chosen to live a life for him that is one of true freedom.

He didn’t need anything beyond what he already had, he didn’t wish for anything or Blame anyone, and he never tried to Justify why he was homeless. He took full ownership and responsibility of his life and he loves it, far more than many of us may with our homes and creature comforts included. John had everything he wanted.

What can you do to take ownership and responsibility to feel that you’re living a life with true freedom and power to make your own choices?

When you feel empowered knowing that you’re choosing from a place of responsible decision making, then you’ll always feel the power and freedom in the outcome.

Everyone we meet can teach us something. I’m extremely grateful to John for a couple of reasons: not only did this man know exactly what he was doing and in doing so felt the power and freedom, but he also made me to check in with my life once again so I may ask myself the exact same questions I was asking him.

Homeless or not, this post is for you, John, to your freedom and your power to choose.

With various managerial and directorial positions over the past 15 years, Mark Roberts is the Installation Manager for a large security company. He leads his team in the core private sectors of his industry in London.

He’s an active member of the Cultural Change Committee and a registered volunteer for several charities. Mark joined The Leadership Gift™ Program in 2014.