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Personal Responsibility Paper

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Maintaining Personal Responsibility to Achieve College Success
Shelby Mack
GEN 200
2-4-14

Abstract

It is essential that personal responsibilities are maintained in a person’s life in order to reach one’s goal of having a Bachelor’s Degree in Business. Personal responsibility is being reliable for one’s own actions. Personal responsibility is important because one will be personally accountable for their failures, their accomplishments and their family’s future. It is vital that a person maintain personal responsibility. There are a few ways they can maintain personal responsibility. First, one would need to set realistic goals. It is important for a person to set realistic goals because it can be beneficial, if you stick with it. People who set goals are more likely to succeed than those who don’t set goals. (Merritt, Berger, 1998). A person can do this by setting short term goals and following through with those goals and then setting long term goals and following thru with them, as well. There are 5 steps you can take to accomplish your goals: 1.) Identify the nature of your goal. 2.) Determine how the goal may be accomplished. 3.) Set time limits 4.) Obtain feedback and 5.) Remain patient. ( Austin American Statesman, 1998) Secondly, if one is having health problems and/ or finance issues you should not let this hold you back. This can be a big stumbling block for many but we should not let this defer us from what we know we need to do. You are pretty much sitting around wasting time not knowing what was going to happen next. A big concern can be what if something happens but you have to turn those negative thoughts into positive thoughts. The time you may spend wondering if something happens, you could have been finish with school. Last but not least are procrastination issues. Procrastination is putting off a task until the last minute. Procrastination can hinder a person from obtaining their personal responsibility. That is why it is wise to set goals and stick by them. According to Blake, (1996), everyone procrastinates from time to time. The problem lies where people become habitual procrastinators and have to play catch up all the time. It is not fun having to play catch up especially if there is a paper that is due that has an extensive amount of research. Time waits for no one and while you are procrastinating you are losing out. Before you know it you will be five or ten years later before a decision is made. Once a person discovers his or her procrastination style, you can learn how to stop procrastinating. Attending college and being successful at it plays to huge role in one’s personal responsibilities. Personal responsibility should be a main focus when it comes to education. Learning personal responsibility teaches a person various things to help them get ready for the real world such as setting goals and sticking to them, how not to procrastinate, how to manage time, the list goes on and on. It is so easy to be distracted by other things especially when a person is trying to reach their goals. Issues come up such as finances, work, health issues, etc. and it is easy to give up. When it comes to not giving up our ethics may play a huge part in keeping us on track. We know that we have standards and morals we want to live up to. The only way we can do that is by maintaining that personal responsibility so that we achieve college success. Sometimes things may get hard and we may want to cut corners but it is also part of our personal responsibility to uphold academic integrity. This would include cheating or plagiarizing. We do not want to cheat ourselves out of learning things the right way. After all we are paying for our education and it is time consuming so we want to give ourselves a fair chance. Attending college is definitely not the easiest thing in the world, but neither is it the hardest. It is well worth the money and time in the end. By combining goal setting, ethics and academic integrity without the procrastination it is possible to obtain that personal responsibility so that you can achieve college success!

Annotated Bibliography

Blake, Ashforth (1996, June) Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research and Treatment.

This article was a summary of the book, Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research and Treatment. It gave several pointers on why people procrastinate which I agreed with 100%. According to Blake (1996), it stated that everyone procrastinates from time to time which is normal. But, then it talked about habitual procrastinators which was a big problem because they are always trying to play catch up.

Merritt, E.A., & Berger, F. (1998, February) The Value of Setting Goals. Cornell and Hotel Administration, 39(1), 40-49

Even though this article was about how managers can set goals and accomplish them, I found some good pointers in this article that can help me. Such as the benefit of goal setting, establish goals and the outcome of setting goals if you stick with it. It also went on to include that those who set goals are more likely to succeed than those who don’t. (Merritt,Berger, 1998)

Anonymous, (2008, June) College students and Faculty Call for Greater Focus on Personal and Social Responsibility: AAC&U The Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education 18(1), 38

This article was based on a survey about personal responsibility and whether or not colleges and universities should focus on personal responsibility. Twenty- three campuses were surveyed and mostly all students, faculty member and administrations believed that colleges should focus on personal responsibility. But when asked was personal responsibility being applied at the campuses the polls dropped. In conclusion, a lot of students and faculty members felt the students should leave college applying personal responsibility. (Anonymous, 2006)

References

Blake, Ashforth (1996, June) Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research and Treatment. http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/204862072?accountid=458

Merritt, E.A., & Berger, F. (1998, February) The Value of Setting Goals. Cornell and Hotel Administration, 39(1), 40-49 http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/469858986?accountid=458

Anonymous, (2008, June) College students and Faculty Call for Greater Focus on Personal and Social Responsibility: AAC&U The Hispanic Outlook on Higher Education 18(1), 38 http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/219220966?accountid=458 Austin American Statesman, . (1998, December 22). How to Accomplish your Goals. Austin American Statesman, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/255713919?accountid=458

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