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Are you a responsible person? You might think so. And you might be. Or you might only associate the idea of responsibility with certain things. There are a lot of things involved in truly being responsible. It can involve more than just strong parenting or being good at your job. Wherever you stand, it pays to look at the finer points of living responsibly.
Some of the things we mention below might seem obvious. But it can be incredibly useful to think about them consciously, and keep an eye out for them in your daily life.
Taking responsibility
Living responsibly and taking responsibility for your actions might sound synonymous with one another, but they have diverse implications. Living responsibly could mean any number of things – as mentioned above, people might consider their job, their home life, or other general life aspects parts of responsible living.
Taking responsibility for your actions is another thing. Really thinking about the causes of actions and consequences is a challenge. Let’s consider a few examples:
- Weight gain. It is easy for people to chalk up being overweight to their genes, pressures at work or at home, etc. Many people then rationalize these problems by saying that there’s not much they can do about it as long as the external causes remain. But this isn’t a healthy attitude. You could go online and look at weight loss advertisements very easily; some may be bogus, but others could be quite sound. You can gradually incorporate a weight loss plan into your routine and still manage your job and home life successfully.
- Problems with kids. This is a big one. If you have one child, for example, that is a start student and another that seems to always have problems, you might be tempted to attribute the problem child’s behavior to his or her individual character. But if you take greater ownership of the problem and take the time to analyze both your attitude towards the child in question, and your kids’ relationship with each other, you might have a much greater influence.
- Money problems. People also tend to attribute financial problems to external sources: “I was born lower class,” “My employer doesn’t treat people fairly,” “My bills are too high,” etc. Even if you do live in a very difficult situation, there is a way that you can take control over these issues. Learning how to budget, control debt, and adjust your work situation are examples of things that people can do to regain control over their finances.
Evaluating your self-worth
This is a related idea to the one above, but one that merits individual consideration nonetheless. You might be the most attentive parent in the world, the most careful eater, etc. But if you don’t truly believe in your self-worth, you won’t be able to truly live responsibly because you will always see yourself as a victim of what you think you deserve.
Consider the following questions. This isn’t necessarily easy, especially if you’ve been living with yourself for decades, but make as conscious of an effort as you can:
- Do people tell you to stop putting yourself down a lot?
- Do you tend to stop short in fulfilling difficult tasks easily, because you think you have a low limit?
- Do you tend to change your mind a lot, and give up on ideas easily?
There are a lot of similar questions that you could be asking yourself, but the point is that many people sell themselves short in life. One study says that 85% of people suffer from low self-esteem that causes them to give up too easily on their goals. Gaining a better understanding of your real feelings of self-worth is an essential part of acting responsibly. It doesn’t just apply to you; it applies to everyone that you deal with in life.
Accepting consequences
Again, this might seem like a simple rewording of one of the points above, but it also has its own implications. You might accept responsibility for developing a financial problem, for example, but still not be willing to accept the consequences of it.
Accepting consequences means taking negative consequences for what they really are, and incorporating lessons learned into your lifestyle. It doesn’t mean that you should forget the things that your actions have caused, but that you should keep them in mind so that they don’t recur.
Responsible living can be incredibly rewarding
As cliche as it might sound, being responsible can be an extremely fulfilling way to live. When you really get on a good track, your responsible behavior starts to take on its own momentum, and you make it part of your daily routine. This doesn’t mean that you don’t need external motivators to keep you going, but you will learn to recognize both them and the things that influence your life negatively, and act accordingly. And this will be to the benefit of everyone around you.
