While most students can achieve some level of success while haphazardly attending to their responsibilities, to be truly successful in college a student must demonstrate a higher level of personal responsibility.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Responsibility is “A moral obligation to behave correctly towards or in respect of a person or thing. With to, towards, or for.” Personal Responsibility is the voice in our head, consider it our inner compass that tells us what needs to be done in order to achieve a goal. In order to practice personal responsibility on must take action on their inside voice, and do what needs to be done to achieve a particular outcome.
Without some degree of personal responsibility, success in anything is impossible. This is especially true when it comes to college. College Success and Personal responsibility go hand in hand, if a student does not demonstrate discipline, and understand that not being responsible for their actions can have serious consequences, the motivation to be successful will never fully materialize, and a student’s full potential will not be achieved. A student must have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish, and what the end will mean. To achieve your goals practicing personal responsibility, a student must fully vest themselves into the future they want to have. If a student does not have a clear vision of the end, and fully understand what they need to accomplish, then they have no motivational driver to finish. Every student needs this driver, and then they can focus on what is needed to accomplish their goal. Keeping schedules, and doing the hard work is easier when you have a vision of the outcome. If a student doesn’t fully commit to education and instead decides they would rather pursue social activities, such as “partying” while neglecting their responsibilities as a student, how will they reach their goal? It’s easy to want a college degree, but to achieve that goal a student must fully commit to education, and practice personal responsibility.
To be successful students must learn to prioritize, one must place value on their time, and learn to use it wisely. Time management and personal responsibility are the only factors that the student has complete individual control over. Considering that all students in a particular class are given the same assignments, and due dates, why do some excel, and some fail? It boils down to the value they placed on their time, and the individual determination in each student to succeed. There are several ways to be successful in pursuit of a higher education, but the most important thing a student must do is realize that time is money! One can either invest time in order to reap a future reward, or one can waste time, and never live up to their full potential. Scheduling and benchmarking are great ways to manage the limited resource that is time. Set a schedule and keep to it. Within a student’s schedule they must set benchmarks, this can act as a gauge to measure how you manage your time. If you have scheduled 8-10 PM on a Monday night to work on your studies, and you have committed to complete task X, Y, and Z; if its 9:30 on Monday and you have only completed X then you can clearly see that your time management skills need to be improved. On the other hand if its 9:15 and all scheduled task have been completed, that would be a good indicator of good time management.
To practice personal responsibility, goals must be set and achieved. A student must develop a schedule, and keep to their plan. Setting aside a portion of each day, participating in discussions, and submitting assignments on time are all important, but you must fully involve yourself in your work to be truly successful. Sometimes other aspects of your life must be put on hold, or delayed to complete a task. That’s where personal responsibility is of utmost importance, a successful student must set priorities to not only complete coursework, but to be successful.
In conclusion, a student can only accomplish what they want to. If a student wants to be successful in college, or anything for that matter, they must possess a higher level of personal responsibility, and be willing to commit to making themselves a better person. One’s own success is entirely in their own hands, hard work and determination are required to achieve success, and one must have the discipline to complete coursework, and take care of all the things necessary to be successful in life.