“You know people who accept responsibility — aren’t they great to be around?” vii, from the forward.

The focus of this book is a worthy one. The author, John Izzo, provides many real life examples of people stepping up and doing the right thing and how it has helped their lives and businesses.

Unfortunately, it just reads like one cliché after another and I had a difficult time connecting with it.

Stepping up is seeing a need and deciding YOU are the right person to do something about it.” pg x.

I do agree that all of our power lies in ourselves. Blame doesn’t fix problems. Waiting for someone else to do it doesn’t do the trick either.

“The consequence of having a seismic shift towards victim thinking means more of us feel that the future is not in our hands but in the hands of forces outside ourselves. And since internal locus of control is positively correlated with happiness, success and initiative while external locus of control is related to anxiety and depression, it’s pretty clear that most organizations and society as a whole would be better off if more of us believed we could change things.” pg 21

What it comes down to is understanding that at the end of the day, the only person you can entirely control is yourself.

“Beginning where you are and doing what you can with your unique set of skills is critical.” pg 80

What are some of the methods Izzo suggests for “stepping up”? He counsels focusing on what matters, challenging your internal assumptions and find one thing, anything, that you can do immediately to address how you may have contributed to the problem.

“Think about this for a moment: everything that has EVER been accomplished began with someone taking a single step.” pg 71

It’s common sense stuff. Which is fine, but not exactly what I was expecting from this one. I suppose I’ll take responsibility for my internal assumptions about what I would learn from Stepping Up. It’s not YOU, book, it’s me.

“But here is the truth. There is a 100 percent guarantee that nothing will change if you don’t step up.” pg 33

What is my solution to this problem? On to the next book, my friends.

“Once you step up, somehow that act of taking initiative drives you to find the resources you need inside and outside yourself.” pg 119

To the library! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

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