This week I want to explore the idea behind the following quote: “If you’re not changing it, you’re choosing it.” This is a quote from Erich Viedge, a Toastmaster from South Africa. I heard this quote when watching the recording of a “Belief Shift” webinar that Erich facilitated.

Making Excuses and Placing Blame

One common way people handle difficult situations is by making excuses or placing blame on others or on their circumstances. While this response can feel justified – or even comforting – it ultimately keeps you stuck. When you explain away a problem or assign responsibility elsewhere, you remove yourself from the equation. And when you do that, you also remove your ability to change the outcome.

Blame shifts responsibility outward. It tells a story where someone else, or something else, is in control of your results. Circumstances may influence your situation, but they don’t have to define it. The moment you hand responsibility to external factors, you give up your power to act.

Choosing accountability means recognizing that while you may not control everything that happens to you, you do control how you respond. Growth begins when you stop asking who is at fault and start asking what you can do differently. Ownership restores agency – and agency is what makes change possible.

Choosing Not to Change

Another way people handle difficult situations is by doing nothing at all. This response is often less obvious than blame or excuses, but it can be just as limiting. Inaction may look like patience, avoidance, or waiting for the “right time,” but beneath the surface, it is still a choice.

When you do nothing, you are choosing to accept things exactly as they are. You allow the current situation – no matter how frustrating or unhealthy – to continue unchecked. Problems don’t stay neutral when ignored; they persist and often grow. Inaction quietly reinforces the status quo and signals that discomfort is preferable to change.

Choosing not to act doesn’t remove responsibility – it simply delays it. Real growth requires the willingness to step forward, make decisions, and take ownership, even when the path isn’t clear. Action creates momentum, clarity, and opportunity. If you want different results, doing nothing can’t be the answer.

Choosing Change

The most effective way to handle difficult situations is to make a conscious choice to change. Change is where progress begins. It shifts you from feeling stuck to taking ownership, and from reacting to acting with intention. While change can feel uncomfortable at first, it is the only path that leads to different results.

For example, if you’re struggling with weight-related challenges, choosing to change your eating or exercise habits is a powerful first step. You may not control every influence around you, but you do control the choices you make each day. Small changes – like planning meals, reducing trigger foods, or moving more consistently – create momentum and build confidence over time.

The same principle applies to procrastination. Procrastination often thrives in a lack of structure. When you change your habits by tracking your tasks, scheduling your work, and breaking projects into manageable steps, you replace avoidance with clarity. That single shift – from reacting to tasks to intentionally planning them – can dramatically improve focus and follow-through.

Change doesn’t require perfection. It requires a decision. When you choose to change your habits, systems, or behaviors, you take control of the situation instead of letting it control you. That choice is the foundation of accountability – and the starting point for real, lasting improvement.

Conclusion

When you choose not to make changes in your life, you are also choosing to accept the results you’re getting. That decision – often made quietly – can keep you stuck in situations that drain your energy, limit your growth, and hold you back. Excuses and blame may feel comforting in the moment, but they never create movement or momentum.

Real change begins when you take ownership of your circumstances and decide to act differently. Ownership empowers you to break patterns, make intentional choices, and create better outcomes. Growth doesn’t happen by accident – it happens through deliberate action.

As Erich Viedge reminds us: “If you’re not changing it, you’re choosing it.”