Personal Responsibility

I wanted to talk today about a value that I believe holds the key to really put this country back on track as well as increase the trust people have amongst each other. That value is personal responsibility. It is something that over the last several decades has been on the decline. We have all heard the saying that not only actions, but decisions we make, have consequences. We have also heard the saying, “you made your bed, now sleep in it.” A lot of people are of the opinion that these sayings are cliché and don’t really matter, as they feel anything cliché does not. Interesting thing about clichés, they became cliché precisely because they are grounded in truth. Personal responsibility is the glue that holds so many other principles and values together. As we have seen its decline, we have also seen the decline of other values and a decline in civilization itself.

How do I define personal responsibility? I define it as being willing to accept the consequences of your actions. To know that you are in the situation you are in because of your own decisions. It has not been caused by some outside force or the actions of another person. Even if you find yourself in the worst of circumstances, you have the power to pull yourself out. If you don’t like where you are at in life, be it your career, your relationships, your spiritual life, whatever; recognize that something needs to change and then do what is necessary to improve the situation. I also believe, if you make a decision, you accept how it affects other people and realize that you had an impact, be it positive or negative.

How has personal responsibility been on the decline? I believe it comes to a general feeling of victimhood. Somebody did this to me, therefore my life sucks and somebody should fix it for me. What a load of bull. Victimhood is one of the greatest schemes perpetrated by those in power, be it political or any other type of power. By making you feel like you are a victim and pushing that it is the fault of some other person, group, or vast conspiracy, they keep you hooked on their solution. I don’t want to delve too much into victimhood, because that is a whole topic in itself. It boils down to somebody telling you, you don’t have the power to pull yourself up, and therefore absolving you of any personal responsibility.
The other issue is the feeling of, what I do doesn’t matter. I’m the only person it’s going to hurt, so it’s ok. Everything we do in life has an effect on not only ourselves, but the people around us and our environment. Besides, who would want to do anything potentially harmful or negative to themselves? I know it sounds counterproductive, but some people just get so down and depressed they figure it doesn’t matter. We are ultimately responsible for our decisions; therefore we should accept that responsibility. Here is a case in point; I had a young girl call into my job the other day asking if we offer Plan B Contraceptive and if so how much. I gave her the information, and thought, if you are going to be sexually active or even think you may be and you don’t want to get pregnant, maybe you should be responsible about it before hand.

So, what should we all be doing about it? First, take responsibility for your own life and actions. That involves thinking a little bit before making a decision. If you make a decision that has an adverse affect on your or anyone else, man up to it and claim the responsibility that is yours. If you are not satisfied with a particular area in your life, FIX IT YOURSELF. Don’t sit around hoping that something will happen or someone will come along in your life that will make everything better. We only have the things in our life that are a must, not the things that are just wants or we should have done. To borrow a phrase from Mr. Robbins, some people just should all over themselves. Does that mean we aren’t going to have any pain or disappointment in life? Of course not! What is important is that we take responsibility for our lives, learn from them, make ourselves better, and by extension improve the lives of those around us.