Taking Responsibility

Just about everyone agrees that it's a good thing to be responsible, but not everyone agrees about what "responsibility" means. Are you a responsible person? What does it mean to be responsible? Does it mean doing what is expected? Keeping your promises? Being a good provider?

Certainly, all these things are important, but being responsible means more than that. Some might argue that we are responsible for absolutely everything in our lives. It’s not hard for people to take responsibility for all the successes, but the same applies to all the failures as well.

If you don't accept responsibility for your life, you are likely to just shrug off your failures thinking you have nothing to learn from them. But if you don't take full responsibility for your life, you will never be happy, because no one can make you truly happy but you.

You might wonder, then, if you're responsible for illness and adversity, too. Well, you are certainly not responsible for earthquakes or the drunk driver who sideswipes your car. But you are, without a doubt, responsible for how you respond to these things - and whether you choose to use them to learn from and to grow.

Taking responsibility for your life gives you the freedom to take risks and make mistakes, and that's a great feeling. Of course, it also means you need to be prepared to take the consequences of your risks and mistakes.

Many years ago, a young president stood before the American people and commented that the Bay of Pigs was a fiasco and should never have happened. He took full responsibility for all the fallout from this failed event. At this point John F. Kennedy was transformed from a promising your politician into a true leader.

The same is also true for everyone. If you take responsibility for your life and your decisions and your actions, then you have the power to take active control of your life. If you avoid this responsibility, then you have lost that power – actually, you will be giving it away!

From my perspective, you can't grow very much if you are not willing to take responsibility for all the good and the bad things happening in your life. If you are willing, I guarantee you, there is no limit to how far you can go.

Think about it...