I follow the writer Elizabeth Gilbert on facebook. I thought this was a great post of hers. Too many of us cannot seem to pick ourselves up after we fall. Being able to do this not only helps us with our weight loss but in life overall. Just sharing...

"When I look back at my life's journey, I can see dozens of people who have helped me along the way — but ultimately, I was the only one who could raise myself. And that didn't happen until I decided to take complete accountability for my own life. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about this notion of self-accountablity. It is becoming increasingly evident to me how vital self-accountabilty is for a meaningful and happy existence. In fact, I don't know a single happy person who is not completely self-accountable.

But it's a tricky metric, because self-accountabily can sometimes be confused with self-blame. And I don't know any happy people who practice dreadful self-blame. Because self-accountabilty does not mean saying, "I ****** up, and I'm the worst person who ever lived." Nope, self-accountabilty means saying, "Well, that didn't go the way I expected it to, or wanted it to. But now I will put in the effort to learn from that experience, and to grow." And if that means reaching out for help from others, by all means, reach out for help. (Other people cannot raise you, remember, but they can indeed help you at times.) Then take that help, and use it to raise yourself up — to shape your own soul. 

That part — the shaping of your soul — nobody can do for you. That's entirely your job...and I would argue that it's your only job. 

This is how you learn to use your wings."

Awesome and so true!  Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing this Laura!

I see "self-blame" as internalized negative emotion that holds us back (i.e. a mental hole that one can not get out of) while "self-accountability" is a more clinical, sterile assessment that isnt internalized.  For example, "Well, crap, I put the tall vase on the edge of the table and knocked it off and broke it when cleaning. I will remember not to do that next time."

This is very great advice. I was having a tough time last wee****pt beating myself up. So I made a list of what I did and how I would change things the next time I came into that type of situation. 

I know I am not cured.I hate this saying but I am a work in progress.

Thanks for posting this Laura

Excellent post. It is so important to learn from our mistakes and try not to make the same ones again. also to take responsibility for our errors and instead of blaming everything around us, use this to grow.

Thank you for sharing.   

Sometimes we forget to treat and love ourselves at least as good as we treat friends and family.   We don't need to like everything about our friend - and still love her/him.  It is harder to do that to ourselves. 

Thanks for sharing.

The whole concept of you raise yourself seems a bit weird to me, because that is not how I use the term raise.  But I get self accountability, I am totally self accountable, hence the reason I do not accept help very easily and like to do anything on my own.  I have no respect for womyn who live off of men when they are perfectly capible of working and take care of themselves.  Everyone should be able to take care of themselves and take responsibility and not blame the world for their problems.

beautiful post