Something that has always been important to me is personal responsiblity. Just to be sure I thought Iknew what Iwas talked about, I turned to Google.com and put the term in. I expected to find thousands of responses. I got just 10 back. Apparently it is not the issue I thought it to be.
One website I looked at said this "Taking personal responsibility means you acknowledge and accept that you are answerable for the outcome of your life. Life always gives you the consequences related to your actions or inaction. Being responsible indicates that you accept accountability and are in control" (about-personal-growth.com, para. 1). Hmmm.....
I try to take responsiblity for all of my actions. I cannot take responsiblity for those that I am not aware of, like if my words or actions wound someone. I rely on that person to bring this to my attention. In those cases, I can then take responsiblity for my actions with an apology, a change, or an ammend. I do use a very direct communication style, expecting those with whom I communication to talk back to me, ask questions and to respond to my words. Again, without that give and take, I cannot take responsbility for my words...but I would given the opportunity.
Because I feel strongly about personal responsibilty, I get very impatient with people who do not take responsiblity for their actions. I deal with this in many areas of my life. Some of my students do not like to take responsiblity for their actions. Instead of simply saying they forgot to do an assignment (or turn it in or whatever) they feel as though they must create gigantic sagas for what they missed and why they do not deserve to have any consequences for their actions. Ok. I can be a bit forgiving on this. After all, they are learning.
The ones that I get most impatient with are my comtemporaries who cannot seem to take responsiblity for their actions. These are mature adults who feel perfectly justified in stealing something from others by saying "it's what I was owed". Mature adults who will lie and implicate other people to protect themselves from the consequences of their own actions. Those are the people that will throw their "friends" under the bus to protect themselves. These are people that I do not have the time for in my life.
Imagine a world in which people took responsiblity for their actions...what if they said, "you're right, I do owe you that money." Or, "I'm sorry I lied to you about that." Or, my favorite and seemingly the simplest, "I'm sorry I hurt you."
Wouldn't we all be happier and calmer?
Reference
About-Personal-Growth.com (2009). Are you mature enough to accept responsiblity for how your life turned out? Retrieved January 18, 2009 from http://www.about-personal-growth.com/personal-responsibility.html
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Personal Responsiblity
Posted by M at 10:30 AM
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1 comments:
Good thoughts/questions.
I do have 1 thing I disagree on... your forgiveness on your students not turning in homework because they're learning**. Aren't you teaching adults? They should've learned in elementary school that assignments not done doesn't deserve a pass. And even if you are teaching children instead of adults, they need to learn there are consequences for their actions (or in this case, non-action).
**now obviously there are certain occasions, a family member dying, their home burning down, something extreme like that, that does justify not turning in homework. But the dramatic scenarios most people come up with these days hardly qualifies as a real emergency.
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