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personal responsibility by missing_out at 1/20/2008 12:18:27 PM Did you ever stop to think that everything you are or ever will be is completely up to you? Just imagine! You are where you are because of who you are. Everything that exists in your life exists because of you, because of your behavior, words and actions. Because you have freedom of choice and because you have chosen each and every circumstance of your life, you are completely responsible for all of your success and failure, your happiness and unhappiness, your present and future. That thought is like a parachute jump: It's scary and exhilarating at the same time. It's one of the biggest and most important ideas that can ever occur to you, or anyone else. The acceptance of personal responsibility is what separates the adult from the child. It's the great leap forward into maturity. Responsibility is the hallmark of the fully integrated, fully functioning human being. Responsibility goes hand in hand with success, achievement, motivation, happiness and self-actualization. It's the absolute minimum requirement for the accomplishment of everything you could ever really want in life. Accepting that you're completely responsible for yourself and realizing that no one is coming to the rescue is the beginning of peak performance. There's very little that you cannot do or have after you accept that "If it's to be, it's up to me!" The opposite of accepting responsibility is making excuses and blaming people and things for what's going on in your life. And since everything we do is a matter of habit, if people get into the habit of making excuses, they get into the habit of evading responsibility at the same time. If they set a goal or objective for themselves, they immediately create an excuse that they hold in reserve just in case the accomplishment of the goal is too difficult or requires more self-discipline and persistence than they had thought. As soon as things start to go poorly, irresponsible people trot out their excuse and let themselves off the hook. But that won't get them anywhere in the long run.A basic law of human life was first espoused by Socrates more than 400 years before Christ. It's called the Law of Causality. We call it the Law of Cause and Effect. It states that for every effect in your life, there's a cause. If there's any effect that you desire, or desire more of, you can trace it back to the cause, and by duplicating the cause, you can have the effect. Only you can think your thoughts, only you can decide what you'll dwell upon, what you'll read and listen to, who you'll associate with and the conversations you'll engage in; therefore, you are totally responsible for all the consequences of all those behaviors. It's unavoidable. Perhaps the most important part of the subject of self-responsibility involves your happiness and your peace of mind. There seems to be a direct relationship between responsibility and happiness on the one hand, and irresponsibility and unhappiness on the other hand. If the Law of Correspondence is true (and it is), and everything that is happening to you on the outside is due to something that is happening to you on the inside, then the first place to look is within. As soon as you do that, you begin to see things that you had completely missed when you were busy blaming others and making excuses. Are you happy with your job? Are you happy with the amount of money you're earning? Are you happy with your level of responsibility and your activities each day? If you're not, you need to accept that you're completely responsible for every aspect of your job and your career. Why? Because you chose it freely. You took the job, you assumed the responsibilities, and you accepted the wage. If you're not happy with any of them, for any reason, then it's up to you to do something different.You're earning today exactly what you're worth-not a penny more, not a penny less. In life, we tend to get exactly what we deserve. If you're not satisfied with the amount you're getting, look around you, at people who are doing the kind of work you would like to do and earning the kind of money you would like to earn. Ask them what they're doing differently from what you're doing. What are the causes of the effects they're getting? Once you know what they are, accept complete responsibility for your situation, apply your wonderful mind and abilities, back them with willpower and self-discipline, and get busy making the changes you need to make to enjoy the life you want to enjoy.Your great aim in life is to develop character. Character is composed of self-esteem, self-discipline, the ability to delay gratification, and the willingness to accept full responsibility for your life and everything in it. The more you say to yourself, "I am responsible," the stronger, better and finer a person you become. And every part of your life will improve at the same time.