Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility is something many people lack these days. It's so much easier to blame someone else for our problems, but if we'd all just take a step back and analyze the situation, we'd probably see where we need to take responsibility.

Many kids, teenagers especially, like to reject responsibility for their actions. It's a juvenile mentality and yet as they (and we) get older, we have this tendency to not outgrow it. We want so badly for someone else to be at fault, not us. We want someone else to take the fall. We can't possibly be wrong, can we? 

Someone else did this to us, it's not out fault.

Most times, it is our fault.

We make poor decisions and blame it on our circumstances. We do something illegal or immoral and we say it's because of what someone else did. We don't own our choices. 

You see this mentality in business, in social situations, and in the news all the time. 

It's hard to own a bad decision, but so much easier to blame someone else. We can sleep easier knowing we weren't the cause of something bad. 

What happened to responsibility? Where did it go? Why do we reject it? 

As a parent, it is my responsibility to instill in my son a sense of responsibility for his own actions. I accept that responsibility. I chose that when my wife and I decided to have a child. Whatever happens, it's not someone else's fault. It's mine, and ours, for the decision we made. We can't blame anyone else and deny our responsibility. Otherwise, we are doing a disservice to our son and others. 

Whenever we mess up, we need to take a step back. Consider our role in the situation, and own the responsibility before we go blaming others.

It's never easy owning a mistake, but in order for us to move forward, we have to be ready to accet personal responsibility no matter what.