Personal responsibility is the concept that you are the cause of your own actions, decisions, thoughts and feelings. It is the idea that your choices alone influence your life and your perceptions.

Personal responsibility is closely related to self-awareness and accountability. It is about knowing that you are the only one in control of your own life.

When you start taking accountability for your decisions, actions, thoughts and feelings, it helps you adjust your life how you wish to live it.

Keep reading to find out more.

LET’S GET ON IT

When you have responsibility for your own actions and thoughts, you become accountable for maintaining a certain standard of living. You become more organized, honest, reliable, confident, successful and overall healthier you.

What is personal responsibility?

Personal responsibility means you accept you are in control of how you feel, how you process your thoughts, how you act and behave and how you react to external situations.

The point of becoming self-responsible is that when things don’t happen according to your own expectations, you have the ability to regulate your reactions and realize that there is no one else to blame for any outcomes than yourself, in other words, you become accountable for your life.

What is personal accountability?

On the other hand, accountability is not about taking and accepting the blame. It is about delivering on your promises and acting accordingly to your values. Personal accountability is all about the outcome, the follow-through with your responsibilities.

When you are accountable for yourself, you answer to no one else, and are responsible for your own life. See how the two concepts intertwine?

Why is personal responsibility important?

We have covered that personal responsibility helps you take control of your choices and how you perceive reality.

As you become more responsible for yourself, you learn how to regulate all aspects of your life, your behaviors, your actions and how you respond to the challenges that will come your way.

Personal responsibility impacts not only your mental health, but also your physical health and how you take care of yourself.

Without personal responsibility, you most certainly will end up developing a victim mentality. The victim mentality makes you constantly blame others, or external factors, for every negative aspect of your life. You know what I am going to say next… The victim mentality only results in bad quality of life, in decreasing your mental health, and most importantly, your happiness.  It is a downward spiral and the only way to avoid it is through personal responsibility.

Additionally, keeping personal responsibility and accountability helps you become more organized, honest, successful and confident. It is proven to increase your overall health, productivity and self-awareness.

How do you work towards personal responsibility?

Becoming responsible and accountable for yourself does not have to be difficult. You can start small, with simple steps, and routinely build it onto your daily life, until it ends up becoming an automated process which you do without even thinking! It becomes part of who you are.

Step 1: Stop blaming others.

Understand that your actions and their outcomes are your responsibility, and yours alone.

For example, if you have gained 30 pounds over the past year, you will not blame the pandemic; you blame yourself for your lack of exercising and eating junk food.

This is actually the most important step. Once you have learned to stop blaming others, you come face to face with your limitations, which can be rather unpleasant. At the same time, becoming aware of your shortcomings allows you to correct them according to your own values, which is another step closer to growing in maturity.

Step 2: Learn not to take things personally.

Learning to take responsibility can help you make sense of what happens in your life, even when things are tough. However, life can be hard. Life can be unfair. And sometimes, no matter how much personal responsibility you have, bad things are bound to happen, that have absolutely nothing to do with you. Learn to tell the difference, because taking things too personally and blaming yourself for everything can very quickly disrupt your mental health and your peace, causing lack of motivation, focus and decreasing your happiness.

Step 3: Be realistic with your expectations.

Unrealistic expectations are impossible to achieve, and trying to keep up with them will lower your productivity and motivation.

With a little self-awareness, you can create realistic expectations according to your own qualities and limits. This will help you keep your focus and directs your efforts to achievable actions and goals, improving your happiness.

Remember, we are only human. And no one is perfect, so it is rather unreasonable to expect it.

Step 4: Start creating healthy habits, both physically and mentally.

Self-awareness is a crucial part of personal responsibility. When you start developing healthier habits, you become more aware of what to change to become more productive and grounded. It helps you to live up to your own standards and values.

Step 5: Evaluate.

One awesome way to keep yourself motivated towards any goal is to evaluate your progress. Look at where you have started and how far you have come and what you need to do to achieve your desired outcome. You need to know what you are doing well and what is not working to be able to improve.

When you pay attention too your actions and behaviors, you become more honest with yourself, more self-aware. And accepting your imperfections is a very important part of growing and becoming personal responsible.

In conclusion

Maintaining personal responsibility and accountability marks an empowering transition in your personal development journey through life, where you gain complete control of your time, your behavior, your thoughts, and ultimately the person that you want to become.

Personal responsibility and accountability work hand in hand to give you a sense of control that sometimes feel so out of reach. However, if you do the work, you will find the effort was completely worth it.

Having personal responsibility means you can live the life you have always dreamed of without waiting for other people to create it for you. It is entirely up to you. An that is a rather empowering thought.

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Let me know you maintain your personal responsibility in the comments!

Until next time.