The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Moment 162: The ONE Thing Stopping You From Reaching Your Full Potential!: Africa Brooke

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

In this moment, world renowned mentor and writer, Africa Brooke discusses how the idea of personal accountability has been hijacked. She says that all too often people can pass up on accepting responsibility and instead blame others for their misfortune and see themself as a constant victim. However, Africa says that the idea of accountability is actually a way of giving power, freedom, and control back to people, as they realise there is always something they are able to do to change their situation. Once they realise this, people gain resilience for future tough times, as they know that no matter the situation they have the ability to control how they move forward in life. Listen to the full episode here - Apple- https://g2ul0.app.link/b9OPSNaGEJb Spotify - https://g2ul0.app.link/TIVYc9ZjNu Watch the Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Africa: https://africabrooke.com/

Quick one, just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio.

And thirdly to Amazon Music who, when they heard that we were expanding to the United States, and I'd be recording a lot more over in the States, they put a massive billboard in Times Square for the show. So thank you so much, Amazon Music. Thank you to our team. And thank you to all of you that listened to this show. Let's continue. Speaking of controversial topics, one of the things that's become surprisingly controversial over the last couple of years is and probably for a little while longer um since the 17th century um is this idea of accountability which to me seems like much of the antidote to self-sabotage it's like taking personal responsibility for your life and your situation i've heard you talk about

this i actually think this was the first the, one of your first videos that caught my attention was you talking about taking responsibility in a really, you know, a fairly direct way. So tell me how taking responsibility, what that means to you, but how that helped you to rise out of that phase you had from 14 to 24. Yeah. Oh, it was huge. It was huge. And it had to be one of the first things that I did. Actually, as I, as I think about this and sort of speak out loud, I think what allowed me to get and stay sober that eighth and final time was taking personal responsibility. I think all of the other times I had wanted to place blame on a lot of things outside of me. So my dad would have been the easiest person because he was an alcoholic and because of his abuse and because of everything we experienced and because of the instability, because of coming to a new country, moving to a part of the UK where just me, my sister and Curtis are the only black kids, the adversity I experienced

from that. So I think there were so many ways that I could externalize, right? But I think the moment that I was able to say, okay, well, Africa, what part did you have to play in this? So you've experienced all of this adversity. What now? What fucking now? No one else can do it for you. And I think that helped me so much. And another thing that I had to do, which is a part of that responsibility and accountability was making amends. So people that have followed the 12 step program, for example, will know that making amends is a huge part of it. I didn't follow the 12 step program. What's the 12 step program. So 12 step is a essentially Alcoholics Anonymous, you go through a process, a 12 step process of accountability, essentially. And one of those

steps is making amends, reaching out to the people that you've harmed, and making amends. And that's what I had to do. And I really did that. And there was a lot of shame, there was a lot of guilt, there were a lot of people that didn't want to hear it, but there were a lot of people that were very grateful that even after all of these years, I'm coming to them and acknowledging something that I did or played a part in. And only then could I actually move forward with my sobriety, knowing that I am responsible. Yes, I've experienced a lot of adversity but I am the one that gets to decide what now so fast forward to finding ourselves in a culture where even just conversations around personal responsibility are have been politicized

because I've noticed they're labeled as right wing the moment isn't that weird it's mad it's mad isn't that crazy the moment you say you do realize there is a lot in your life that you can control you're called a bigot i'm a puppet and i'm a victim and there's nothing i can control it's and it's that political party that did this yeah so yeah and that that is unfollowed it's fucking crazy it's mad and i think i've i speak to my family and my friends about all of these things quite a lot actually and because i'm still very much in touch with everyone back home in Zimbabwe and because I have that perspective when I compare to that part of the world to the western world this just seems like a completely different world like some kind of show it can't be real that people can get upset to know that there are things in your life that you can control. Yes, you might have

experienced x, y, and z, but you are responsible for how you move forward. Yes, there might be other components, maybe it is the system, maybe it is your familial environment, whatever the details might be, but there are also things within your control. The fact that people can label that as being bigoted the moment you say i i just wouldn't you want that to be the case wouldn't you want to have things that you can control the thought of being powerless yeah my circumstances is the most terrifying thing in the world you know being a being a being that's why i refer to it as a puppet that someone else is pulling these strings right and i have no i'm powerless to my situation so I think it's I find it empowering and liberating to say do you know

there is a lot of things I can control yes I'm I'm broke yes I'm in this situation but there are there's something that I can do yeah and I have to also express the nuance that you did which is there are a lot of people that are um that are disabled there are a lot of people that have found themselves in horrifically unfortunate circumstances through no fault of their own yes but i find it really important for my sanity of mind and my optimism for the future to know that there is something often there is something that i can do to change my situation absolutely that's a controversial idea imagine that would you have the people typing out at you easy for you to say yeah rich motherfucking with his car what what what what is it though do you do you think you know what that is yeah

because it holds a mirror up to you it makes you feel like for some people and i think it was for me at some point as well holding that mirror up and saying do you know what i might have had part to play in this and I'm actually, I can have a part in getting out of this situation. For some people is evidence of their inadequacy that they just don't have the self-esteem to confront. So it's easier to blame. Blame is a nice shield. It's a nice way to deflect the attack against my already fragile self-esteem. I would do that, of course, when I was younger and someone might point at something blame was a way for you not to hit me in the self-esteem it was a way of saying no no no no that's not because I'm inadequate or because I'm not capable or I'm not smart or because I'm not working hard it's because

of this other thing and so leave me alone Africa blocked yes it's like do you know what I mean that's that's my analysis of it often is it's for some people it's it's look it's a it feels like evidence of their inadequacy yes and why what would someone not like that well because it makes you feel like shit yeah and I think because we're also being encouraged I especially the younger generation who I really now more than ever want to make more of an effort to really speak directly to them is because I think we're sort of training each other to not prioritize emotional resilience because along with personal responsibility, resilience is also another controversial word. You know, this idea that you can build a strong foundation within yourself that even if something happens externally outside of you, you are able to deal with it.

You don't have to go into that deep, dark place and think that is it, full stop. So I think because most people are not emotionally resilient and are not nurturing and sort of cultivating that within themselves. It continues that cycle where you just end up in perpetual victimhood. And then we are in a culture that rewards victims, you know. And I think self-correction there, actually, and I want to make this very clear, that there is a very real difference between being a victim,

someone who has genuinely been victimized, and making victimhood an identity there's a there's a huge difference between the two but I think when you start to make victimhood an identity for anything and everything that's when it might be time to actually hold a mirror up to yourself on that word resilience yeah I think the reason why resilience is in part at least why it's a controversial topic is because it kind of starts to merge into the lane of like mental health and resilient people when they think of resilience they think of like shut up and deal with it yeah you know what I mean

yeah and then that that acts as in conflict to the narrative of like express yourself feel your emotions yeah it's okay to be not okay yeah so talk to me about the distinction you make between those two things and your relationship with both you know what i guess this is where i would bring it back around to holding those multiple truths because why do we think that we have to choose between one or the other why can't you be both emotionally resilient as an individual as a being and allow yourself to express yourself, and allow yourself to be vulnerable, and allow yourself to have those real low moments that we all do. And I think both can coexist. It's really not one or the other.

So what is the opposite of resilience then? The word weakness comes to mind, but I don't know if that's accurate. I don't know if that's accurate. I don't know if that's accurate to what... I'm not sure. But it's interesting because the word weakness comes to mind and maybe a part of me, or even for someone listening, we, we think associating the word weak to yourself means there's something wrong with you that it's a bad word i think there's this idea that it's it's bad to be weak

or it's not acceptable to be weak but i think we all have moments of weakness but i don't know if that would be the opposite of of resilience what do you think? So if we're talking about emotional resilience, maybe the opposite is emotional, maybe fragility? Maybe, I don't know. It's something within that realm, right? Yeah. And the reason I'm basically playing devil's advocate with myself to see if it is two truths, we were describing earlier about being expressive and being in touch with your emotions. Is that being emotionally fragile?

Or is that something else? I wonder if another word that's coming to mind, for some reason, soft. I think it's both possible to be soft and whatever you would consider hard. Because just in very simple language, when I hear the word resilience, you have to be hard. There's something sort of, it's not necessarily stoic, but it's sort of that

kind of language where you're really fully grounded in yourself. Your back is straight, you're internally up, you know, whereas the other side of that is maybe there is an element of fragility, which is fine. I don't think it's a bad thing. Allowing yourself to be soft, allowing yourself to not be as strong all of the time. So I think... It's interesting, isn't it? Because on one hand you're saying be resilient, but then also be the opposite of resilience.

Yeah, yeah. But you can be both. There could also be context, right? Yeah. It can be context-specific behaviour. So you can be both. There could also be context, right? Yeah. It can be context specific behavior. So you can be resilient in the sense that when someone pelts abuse at you in your Instagram DMs, you have the resilience to not internalize that,

not let it destroy your day or your mood and to move on. But then you can be, I guess, emotionally, you know, then your dog might die. I've got a lovely dog running around somewhere here. My dog might die. And've got a lovely dog running around somewhere here. My dog might die. And that is real cause for emotional expression and to be emotionally, to be soft and to be open and to feel. So maybe it's context specific.

Yes, I think so. I think so. But again, I think they can both coexist.