It is not enough simply to believe it, but you must achieve it. Personal responsibility comes in many forms, financial, relational, spiritual, and more. The uniting factor is that it is taking control of one’s life, and owning it. Accepting personal responsibility is empowering, even if it is through accepting failure. This is the only way to learn from failure.
We are all going to face challenges and failures. What differentiates people is how they respond. By taking personal responsibility for one’s actions, a person not only owns up to their failure but how they respond to it. Self-victimization, even when the situation truly was out of the person’s control, has the perverse effect of perpetuating future victimizations. This is true not only in how you treat yourself, but how you treat others.
When you treat a person in need of help as a victim, you run the risk of making them a victim. A better way of providing help is to give the person both the tools and the mentality to solve their own problems. Ultimately, everyone has the internal means to accomplish success. We also make mistakes. But by owning our mistakes, we also can own our success. That is empowering.
“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.” Audrey Hepburn
Podcast – Personal Responsibility – The Adam Goldfein Show – Hour 1
Podcast – Personal Responsibility – The Adam Goldfein Show – Hour 2
Additional Resources
Good Reads, Quotes about Personal Responsibility: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/personal-responsibility
Guilty Government, Social Responsibility vs. Personal Responsibility: http://guiltygovernment.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/social-responsibility-vs-personal-responsibility/
Psychology Today, Take Personal Responsibility: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sapient-nature/201112/take-personal-responsibility-dont-blame-others
Big Future, How Helping Others Helps You: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/outside-the-classroom/volunteering-how-helping-others-helps-you
