100% Responsibility
Take full ownership of every setback to regain control over it
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 75%
100% Responsibility is a practice Humphrey says high performers use: for a fixed window (a day up to a week) you take total responsibility for the parts of your life that are not going well — a colleague underperforming, a difficult relationship with a partner or child, a setback you suffered. Rather than wishing others would change, you ask what you are responsible for in the outcome. The key distinction is fault versus responsibility: many things that happen are not your fault but are still your responsibility to respond to. Taking responsibility returns control; giving it away surrenders the ability to solve the problem. The pay-off is that you become, in his words, 'bulletproof' — steady because you own your reaction to whatever happens.
Origin
Humphrey draws this from repeated conversations on the High Performance podcast, where guest after guest described taking '100 responsibility', and crystallised it with explorer Nims Purja's summit-oxygen story.
Core principles
- 01Taking responsibility gives you power; giving it away gives away control
- 02Something can be not your fault yet still your responsibility
- 03You cannot fix a problem you have handed to someone else
- 04High achievers take 100% responsibility especially for their setbacks
- 05Controlling your reaction to an event, not the event, is where freedom lives
How to run it
- 1
Choose a window and a target
Commit to a day, a couple of days, or a week, and pick the setbacks or relationships that aren't where you want them — work, partner, children, a failure you're carrying.
Pro tip Start with one relationship or one setback rather than trying to own everything at once.
- 2
Take responsibility, not blame
Instead of 'I wish they would change', ask why the relationship or result isn't where you'd like it and what your part in that is.
Watch out Giving responsibility away — 'it's their fault' — also gives away the control you need to fix it.
- 3
Separate fault from responsibility
Accept that plenty of things that happen to you are not your fault, but they are still your responsibility to respond to.
- 4
Reframe to seize control
Write a story about the situation that puts you back in charge and lets you act, rather than one that leaves you a victim of it.
Pro tip Ask 'what's the point in thinking otherwise?' — pick the interpretation that hands you the controls.
In the wild
Explorer Nims Purja, attempting a world record in the death zone, woke to find someone had stolen his oxygen — effectively a crime that could cost his life. Instead of abandoning the climb, he told himself a story: someone must have had a medical emergency in the night and his oxygen saved their life. He then chose to summit faster on his single remaining bottle. Humphrey uses it as the prime example of taking total responsibility and control of your own mindset regardless of fault.
→ Purja summited with one bottle and descended safely, staying in control rather than being derailed.
Humphrey lists being bullied, being fired from McDonald's for 'no communication skills', his grandmother's suicide, and failing his A-levels. Returning to school to resit was the very thing that got him into television, because his politics teacher held a letter from a local TV channel the day he came back. He treats each 'full stop' as a 'comma' — not his fault, but his responsibility to respond to well.
→ He carries no chip on his shoulder and reframes past pain as formative rather than limiting.
Common mistakes
Waiting for other people to change
Hoping a colleague, partner, or child fixes the problem hands them your control and keeps you stuck.
Confusing responsibility with self-blame
Taking responsibility for your response is not the same as declaring everything your fault — the point is to regain the controls, not to punish yourself.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone stuck ruminating on a setback or a relationship they feel powerless to change.
Not ideal for
Situations involving genuine abuse or harm, where 'take responsibility' can wrongly become self-blame.
From the transcript
“taking responsibility gives you power giving away responsibility gives away control and if you give away control you're giving away the opportunity to solve the…”
“loads of things will happen to you that are not your fault but they're still your responsibility”
From the episode
How To Build A High Performance Mindset - Jake Humphrey - #408
Jake Humphrey