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Personal Responsibility

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The value of personal responsibility
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The Value of Personal Responsibility
What is personal responsibility? How does it define us or does it? We are all faced with difficult decisions each day and we must make a choice to determine which direction we are going to take in those decisions. What we choose to do when faced with these decisions and adversity can speak loudly about our character. These choices that we make will have an effect on not only our lives but the lives of people around us.
Daily we are all forced to make tough choices and we must take full responsibility for these choices. Our actions will influence the people around us accordingly. It is important that we always try to remain optimistic in even the worst of scenarios. We must make it a duty of ours to become responsible and use logic and reasoning to make the best possible decisions in every event in our lives. This we must do in our professional careers as well as in our personal lives.
The first element is that we must recognize that we have to accept that we are adults, and we must choose to be responsible. It was once mentioned in a letter to Waikato Times “I think it is time for all the ''do gooding'' to stop, and for citizens to be asked to take more personal responsibility for themselves - not hard.” If you look around you will see this happening everyday around you. You probably even know people that are like this. Thus brings the question, how do we solve this? We do so through our daily actions and the choices we make by being responsible and willing to accept the results of our actions. We also have to become more disciplined and hold certain moral values such as integrity, loyalty, and duty to a higher standard. Lastly, we must never forget that it is not only ourselves that are affected by the roles that we lead in our lives, it affects everyone around us.
The second and more important element is optimism. This is about finding positives in even the direst situations. Just like being responsible, being optimistic is a choice. Elizabeth Galentine said it best when she quoted MDRT President Scott Brennan “Optimism is an intellectual choice.” Once again we see that choice plays a large role in all aspects of being personally responsible. It does not matter where we are or what environment we are in there will always be conflicts to arise amongst teammates and coworkers alike. When we are faced with these conflicts, we must try to learn from our choices both good and bad. This can be accomplished by choosing to discover the positives in negative situations.
It was once mentioned in an article by the US Fed News Service that “Peer pressure puts a lot of people in bad situations because they do something they shouldn't or don't stop something they should, all because they are concerned with what others think.” This brings us to my last and possibly most important point, influence. Our actions which were mentioned earlier can significantly have an influence on those around us. If we are irresponsible in our actions then those around us can be influenced to do the same. This can result in a massive breakdown of team cohesion and attitude. It can also influence us to be less responsible over time. In the same manner as negative influence can have drastic effects on ourselves and others around us so can positive influence. It can be an encouragement for others to want to do well. Having an influence on and individual or a group can be rather difficult but can it can yield life changing events.
In conclusion, although some people might argue that we are not always responsible for our choices or actions simply because “others are doing it” or “it wasn’t my fault” and try to lay the blame on someone else, this is not the case. We are responsible and we must take responsibility for the choices that we make. There are two main reasons for this. The first is by being optimistic we are able to find positives in every situation and build on those to become a more successful individual in every aspect of our lives. The second is that the choices we make and the actions that which we take in our daily lives can be an inspiration to others to do the same. In closing ask yourself this question: What type of influence do I want to have on the people around me?
References
Galentine, E. (2012). Personal responsibility. Employee Benefit Adviser, 10(7), 6. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1022987789?accountid=458
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. (2011, Apr 20). US Fed News Service, Including US State News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/862577526?accountid=458
Personal responsibility. (2013, Jun 18). Waikato Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1368069843?accountid=458

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