You Can’t Outsource Ownership
Support helps, but the follow-through is on you
We live in a world built around outsourcing.
Need groceries? Someone delivers them.
Need a task done? There’s an app for that.
Need clarity on your next step? A hundred podcasts are ready to tell you.
Convenience is great — until we start expecting it to solve things that can’t be delegated.
You can hire help for your schedule, your house, even your meals, but not for your choices.
You can get advice on how to change your life, but no one can live it for you.
I catch this pattern in myself sometimes — scrolling for answers I already know, hoping to find motivation packaged as a shortcut. It feels like movement, but it’s really avoidance. The hard part isn’t knowing what to do; it’s doing it consistently enough for it to matter.
The truth is, ownership is uncomfortable. It forces you to admit that no system, mentor, or life hack is coming to rescue you.
That kind of honesty stings at first — but it’s also freeing. Because once you stop waiting for someone else to take the wheel, you can finally start steering again.
Support helps. But the follow-through? That’s yours.
“The price of greatness is responsibility.” — Winston Churchill
Tired of waiting for motivation to show up before you move? Book your FREE Discovery Call and let’s talk about how coaching can help you build real momentum—one action, one decision, one owned result at a time.
Outsourcing Isn’t a Shortcut
We’ve built a culture that celebrates outsourcing.
We can hand off our errands, automate our calendars, and pay someone to handle almost anything that feels heavy or slow. Convenience is great for logistics—but dangerous when it starts creeping into responsibility.
The problem isn’t getting help. It’s forgetting what parts of life are supposed to be ours.
Every time we hand off something meaningful, we give up a bit of the skill and confidence that come from doing it ourselves. It feels efficient in the moment, but over time it builds dependence instead of strength.
That idea runs through How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen—when you outsource too much of the work that shapes you, you slowly lose the ability to do it at all.
I see this in coaching, but it applies everywhere.
People hire support because they want direction, structure, and accountability—and that’s a good thing. But those tools are supposed to guide effort, not replace it.
The moment you expect help to do the hard part for you, progress stops. Because growth requires friction. You can’t build capacity by avoiding effort.
You can’t contract out the work. You can’t automate self-awareness. At some point, you have to sit in the discomfort and do the part no one else can do for you.
That’s the real cost of convenience. It might save you time now, but it quietly costs you ownership in the long run.
Advice Is Cheap, Action Is Expensive
We love the idea of clarity.
We want the next big insight, the perfect framework, the phrase that finally makes everything click.
But clarity without action doesn’t change anything.
Most people aren’t short on advice—they’re drowning in it.
We read the book, listen to the podcast, highlight the quotes… then go right back to the same habits that made us search for advice in the first place.
That’s because action costs something.
It costs comfort. It costs consistency. It costs the illusion that change can happen without friction.
And most people don’t want to pay that price.
The moment you decide to act, you trade theory for reality—and reality is messy. It doesn’t care what you planned or what your morning routine looks like on paper. It only cares about what you do when it’s not convenient anymore.
No one ever read their way into change.
You can’t “think” your way to discipline, confidence, or self-trust. Those things are built through reps—through showing up when it’s boring, inconvenient, or uncomfortable.
Every breakthrough I’ve seen—whether in sport, business, or life—comes from someone finally getting tired of their own excuses and starting to take action. They stop planning and start moving.
And that’s when everything changes—not because the advice was wrong, but because action finally gave it meaning.
The Freedom in Owning It
Here’s the thing about ownership: it’s heavy at first.
It means every result, good or bad, has your name on it. No excuses. No blame. Just reality.
That’s why most people resist it. Ownership feels like pressure—until you realize it’s actually freedom.
Because when it’s all on you, no one’s holding you back either.
Jocko Willink and Leif Babin called this idea Extreme Ownership—the mindset that says leaders take full responsibility for everything in their world. No pointing fingers, no “yeah, but…” Just owning the outcome.
You don’t have to be in the military, or even a leader, for that to matter. It applies everywhere: work, relationships, training, life.
If you’re always waiting on someone else to fix things, you stay stuck. But the second you decide, this is mine to solve, you get your power back.
It’s not about perfection—it’s about ownership.
When you own your results, you stop reacting and start creating. Real control isn’t comfort or certainty; it’s the quiet confidence that whatever happens next, you’ll handle it.
Watching how easily we give away control—to convenience, to advice, to comfort—reminds us that ownership always comes with a cost. It asks for time, effort, and accountability.
But outsourcing ownership can cost more.
Owning your choices doesn’t make life easier, but it just makes it yours. That’s where the real freedom is. Not in having every answer, but in knowing you’re willing to do the work that builds confidence and clarity over time.
So where in your life are you still waiting for someone—or something—to take responsibility for you? And what might change if you decided that part was yours to own instead?