How To Take Personal Responsibility 

Personal responsibility refers to your ability to hold yourself accountable for your decisions, actions and inactions. You may not always like to have others tell you what to do and what not to do. But, most of those times, you will realize that you often do not have a choice.

Now, that is your office and there are obvious consequences for not submitting to those set rules right?

In a previous post, I wrote on accountability in business and how if you are a business owner, you have several persons aside from yourself whom you must make your business accountable to ensure the continued growth and success of your business.

That is your business, right?

Now, how about your personal life? Don’t you think that there should also be a way to hold yourself accountable for the things you need to do? Now, I am not suggesting you develop a rulebook for yourself or a constitution, far from it. But come to think of it, what harm will it cause for you to have a rulebook for yourself? Think about it for a moment.

As an individual, you must realize that if you are going to be able to live a happier and more fulfilling life, in which you get to achieve your goals, dreams and aspirations, then you must learn to take responsibility for yourself. How do you do that?

Examples of the core values you can adopt for yourself are integrity, honesty, punctuality, reliability, responsibility etc.

Quit Excuses

Excuses are simply reasons you give to justify your failure or an obvious fault of yours. If you are going to effectively take responsibility for yourself, then you must ensure you quit excuses. Some excuses may seem justifiable, but all excuses seek to do the same thing – absolve you of every responsibility.

Let Go Of Past Failures

Past mistakes are what they are – past mistakes. Holding on to them will do you no real good except prevent you from focusing on the present and working towards the future. One thing you have to make peace with is that mistakes do happen, once in a while. Take responsibility for every past mistake and find ways to make amends in the present or build systems in place to guard against a reoccurrence.  

Make Yourself Accountable To Someone

The reason why we have laws and also have law enforcement agents employed is that on a normal day, an average person may not want to obey the laws. Making yourself accountable to someone will help keep you in check. Choosing to make yourself accountable to someone will help you in many ways than you can imagine.

Closing Thoughts

One of the important attributes of an adult is accepting responsibility. In your life, you must ensure you are not just an adult by age but an adult indeed too. This you do by ensuring you take personal responsibility for your life and everything that goes on in it.