93. Less responsibility = more happiness? Nope, the opposite is true.

Hi everyone and welcome to Project Mindset. This channel is for all of you who know that with the right mindset, anything is possible. First of all, I have to apologize for not releasing a podcast for the past few weeks. I think it’s been five weeks now. The reason is that I had—you might remember podcast episode 81—a dinner at a castle, and then at the end of April, the second event in this series took place.

And I had to somehow prioritize everything, like the preparations for the event and then the podcast. At some point, I said to myself, no, I need to focus now. I can’t spend the whole podcast talking about how you need clarity, flow, priorities, and so on in life. And then get stressed out trying to balance everything. So I decided: Okay, I’m pausing my podcast for a few weeks.

That was, I think, a total of five weeks, and after that, things continued full steam ahead. The event itself was amazing. There were over 100 guests. There were 14 panelists present. We had three discussions, which will also be released as podcasts. So, for me, the day was mind-blowing. Anyone who wants a bit of a feel for the atmosphere and some great insights before the podcast episodes are released can go to ProjectMindset.de and click on Events.

A look back at the dinner at the castle

There’s a recap video from before the event, along with some photos, names, guest names, and so on. It’s all listed. You can get some good insights there. But you can also just check out the highlight stories on my Instagram channel. I shared a bit of the day’s events on Instagram. For me, it was a really great event. It focused on mindset and sustainability, especially sustainability. I wanted to understand what my guests were doing in their companies, what projects were currently important, what they were planning for the future, and that’s why I also addressed mindset, because I think we need a mindset for sustainability. We all know where we’re headed if we continue as we are.

And of course, it helps to exchange ideas with each other. But as I said, more on that soon. What I’d like to discuss today, and as promised, there will be a bit more about the dinner at the castle soon. As soon as all the recordings have been reviewed, the individual podcast episodes will be available. But one thing in particular has stuck with me. That was a panel discussion with Ms. Cordula Schulz. She is the owner of the Schulz Flex Group.

A family business is changing its leadership culture

A really interesting company. As I understand it, she’s the second generation to run it. She took over the business from her father, and she gave a fascinating account of how they transitioned from a patriarchal system to a collaborative one. I found it incredibly interesting because she explained that during this transition, from one system to the other, not all employees were willing or able to adapt, and some even left. They simply didn’t want this collaborative system.

It was crazy for me to hear that people would rather work somewhere where maybe just one person gives the orders and everyone has to follow them, and wouldn’t want to work in a company where people discuss things and make decisions together. But apparently, that wasn’t just her experience; I also spoke with other participants there. They told me similar things, that during such transformation phases, there are actually employees who aren’t keen and say, “No, I don’t want the new system, I’m leaving the company,” and so on.

Why some people cling to the familiar

Of course, not everyone is like that, but apparently, you regularly find a certain group who say, “No, I don’t want that kind of change; I want the tried and tested way back,” so to speak, from their perspective. I also thought about it for a long time because it actually surprised me at first why someone would say, “I want to work in a system where only one person tells me what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.”

And I think that has a lot to do with taking responsibility. In the very early podcast episodes, I also talked about the topic of responsibility. So, for me personally, at least for my part, that’s how I think about myself. For me, it’s much easier if I say that it’s all my responsibility. So everything that affects me in any way, everything around me, everything that happens, is solely my responsibility. I’ve also had many conversations where people have said, “Yes, but it sounds stressful if you think you’re responsible for everything.”

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I think the opposite is true. If I know that my decisions have led me to this situation, then I can’t possibly point the finger at anyone and say, “Hey, it’s your fault that things are the way they are now” or “That’s why I feel so bad.” No, I myself decided either to do something or not to do something, and that’s how I ended up in my current situation. And that gives me a kind of peace of mind; I’m incredibly relaxed when I know for sure, “Ah, okay, I’m in this situation because I chose to be in this situation.”

For me, it would be much more stressful if I constantly felt that someone else had decided for me, and that’s why I’m in this situation, and that’s why I might not be doing well, and why I might not be able to move forward, or whatever the problem in the situation may be. But it would feel much more stressful to say or think that someone else decided, and that’s why I feel the way I do today. And actually, I want things to be different. And I think that’s the problem the woman then discussed with us on the panel.

Delegating decisions and avoiding responsibility

I actually think many people believe it’s easier to avoid taking responsibility and simply leave the decisions to someone else. Because then they’re told, “This is how you spend your work time, this is your output, you don’t need to provide ideas, etc. I’ll provide the ideas, and you simply do what I tell you.” And at the end of the day, they say, “Okay, I did everything that person wanted me to, and that’s that. Maybe I didn’t even enjoy it, maybe I don’t see the purpose behind it, the content itself, I don’t understand what I’m doing, but I didn’t have to make any decisions, and therefore maybe I couldn’t make any wrong ones.”

I still think that for many people, especially in such an environment, it’s definitely not the right decision to say, “I’m giving up all responsibility.” Because the question then becomes—and I’d like to ask such people—how happy are you at the end of the day if you’re really not allowed to make any decisions, if you’re always being told how to do things? How happy are you really then? And by “really,” I mean, look me straight in the eye and tell me honestly how happy you are. I can’t imagine that such people will be happy in the long run if they can’t assert their own ideas, make their own decisions, or even question the purpose of their work, and so on.

View responsibility as an opportunity

I can’t imagine anyone being happy in that situation, and perhaps one should have an open conversation with these people and say, “Taking responsibility is actually a good thing, because many people leave, many people thrive on it, and maybe you should try it sometime.” For me, it was mind-blowing. As I said, I thought about it a lot at the beginning, and at first I didn’t understand at all why people think that way. But then I understood. Yes, it might seem easier at first glance to say, “Someone else decides, and then I don’t have any more stress.” But I think the subsequent stress is the problem, the thing that can make you unhappy.

There were so many more discussions and topics, and the theme of mindset is always present for me, no matter the context in which I talk to people. It was incredibly interesting for me to understand how Ms. Schulz guided this transformation, how much energy she invested – she’s a truly fascinating woman. The podcast episode about this will be released soon, and I think many people who might be going through a similar transformation phase right now, where they want to become less burdened, should definitely give it a listen.

Examine your own attitude towards responsibility

My mindset tip, or rather my mindset tool for today, is that we should all really think about whether we take full responsibility for the things that happen around us, or whether we delegate many decisions, pass the responsibility on to someone else because we think it’s easier to then end up pointing fingers and saying, “Ah, okay, because of you I’m in this situation now, and that’s why I’m unhappy, and it’s your fault.” So, I definitely want to think about this with you.

What’s better at the end of the day? The answer is quite clear to me, but perhaps you should analyze for yourselves: Do you have, or are you, fully responsible for your life? Do you delegate certain things, do you relinquish certain decisions? Does that make you happy or unhappy? And if it makes you unhappy, then you know what to do: take full responsibility for survival. As I said, I must apologize again for not releasing anything on my podcast these past few weeks.

Priorities and balance in everyday life

It really just came down to me wanting to maintain a balance. I didn’t want to juggle too many things at once and end up with half-baked results. It was important for me to prioritize, to say, “Okay, I have a tight deadline now, I need to focus on this, and then I can get back to my normal rhythm.” But from now on, I’ll be posting regular content again. Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast episode, as always, please share it with your friends, family, and acquaintances, because that’s the only way Project Mindset can continue to grow.

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Thank you for listening, we’ll talk again soon and until then don’t forget, mindset is everything.