When do we start taking responsibility for our actions? It appears that we no longer own our actions. Owning our actions involves taking personal responsibility for what we do. Why is it that when something goes wrong, we need some place to lay the blame? Part of being a mature, responsible adult is to know that when we make a decision in life, we are responsible for the outcome – not someone else.

Examples

• A married man goes out and has an affair. He blames the wife for not satisfying his needs in bed. Did he ever stop to think that maybe his problem lies with him and not with his wife?
• Your electricity gets turned off because you didn’t pay the bill. Do you blame the mail man for not bringing the bill? Do you blame the electric company, because you didn’t receive the bill? You knew the bill was due. You pay it every month, don’t you? It all comes down to responsibility.
• You join a website and the administrator bans you for breaking the terms of service. You blame the administrator. Why? You knew the rules of the website upon joining and had you not known the rules, you should have prepared yourself better by reading them.
• Your daughter gets pregnant at 15. Let me guess! Do you blame Britney Spears for influencing her to dress sexy? Yet you purchased the clothes for her and allowed her to wear them.
• Your son gets suspended from school for fighting, drinking and drugs. You don’t take responsibility as the parent. You blame the child. Well don’t family values start at home? It is the rules that you set down and enforce that count.

Children

When do we start taking responsibility for our lives? We all have a responsibility to pay our bills, go to work, follow the rules and bring up our families within societal norms.

It is really unfortunate that we seem to be raising a generation of children that don’t take responsibility for their actions. They blame their friends, they blame their teachers, and they blame everyone around them, but never themselves. Enabling children to have resilience as well as responsibility helps them to be confident and better equipped to deal with everyday life and the challenges that it brings.

Being “wronged”

Do you feel mistreated? Are you unable to let go of it, get over it and move on with your life? If you feel someone has wrong you and doesn’t want to own up to the fact that they have mistreated you then there isn’t much that you can do about it. You need to accept that the person isn’t going to see no wrong doing on their part, pick up your bruised ego and move on.

The “blame game”

When do we learn as adults to be responsible for our own actions? When do we start living with the consequences of our decisions? Let go of blaming and being a victim. It serves no one. It sure doesn’t help you. Has not excepting responsibility for your actions made you happy? It is time to admit your mistakes rather than blame someone else.

Self-improvement

Being a responsible adult and taking responsibility for our actions means that we accept credit when we do the right thing. It also means accepting correction when someone tells us that we have made a wrong choice in our life.

We want to be treated as adults unless it’s not in our favour and then we want to blame someone else. That can be anyone but ourselves. It is time each of us assumed responsibility in life, by engaging in the moment, being liable for our actions and taking ownership of them. Stop making excuses for your life. When you have done wrong, admit to your mistakes and then move on!