Why Responsibility matters

Responsibility is the #1 most important soft skill to master.
Mastering the skill of responsibility is life changing. It will affect every area of your life and allow you to see more clearly, act with purpose, and adapt when necessary.

Responsibility is being responsible, accountable and answerable for something in one’s power, control, or management.

 

The Responsibility I am speaking about is taking 100% responsibility for your life, your actions/behaviors, your happiness/sadness, your growth and development or the lack of it.

Responsibility is a skill, it is not innate in you at birth, you will need to learn it, develop it, strengthen it, and master it.

There are 5 essential elements that make up responsible behaviors, they are:

• Honesty
• Compassion/Respect
• Fairness
• Accountability
• Courage

Being responsible makes your life BETTER. When you do what you say you will do, people see you as a dependable and reliable person. This boosts your self-esteem and self-worth.

Thinking before you speak, making certain that the words you use are caring and respectful, shows positive regard for others. From your respectful words, others feel appreciated, understood, and valued. When people feel appreciated and valued they tend to feel good and preform.

Speaking and behaving responsibly is about holding yourself accountable for what you say and do. It is about proving to yourself that you can be, and that you are, in fact, accountable.

“ Be impeccable in your word” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz

It all boils down to your own conscious decision. As you work on becoming more responsible you’ll want to start by making Small and Consistent changes.

Here are a few tips on how you can improve and be responsible.

1. STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR YOURSELF
If or when you make a mistake, own up to it. When you stop making excuses you will learn that you need to motivate and regulate yourself.
Motivating yourself means working hard, showing enthusiasm, exceeding expectations, and continuously striving to improve.
These are the Game Changers:
– Set a goal for yourself and appropriate action steps to achieve the goal. Be sure to follow through with your action steps and hold yourself accountable..
– Identify the steps needed to reach a goal and create a deadline for each step.
– Reward yourself after successfully reaching each step towards your goal.
– Get up early in the morning, with a plan for yourself and your day.

2. NO COMPLAINING
By complaining and nagging about the world around you, you actually fill yourself with negativity. By being negative, you are being miserable. Therefore, cutting down on complaining will bring you to a better mindset, as well as prolonged happiness.
These are the Game Changers:
– Pay attention to what you are paying attention to so you can catch yourself complaining – Look for something positive or neutral in the situation.
– Start and end your day with gratitude. Gratitude is a high vibration that creates overall well-being and releases those feel good endorphins.
– Challenge yourself with “The 7 Day Mental Diet” by Emmett Fox

3. MANAGE YOUR TIME
Managing your time is defined as planning ahead to ensure that all responsibilities are completed by their deadlines.
These are the Game Changers:
– Make a list of all your tasks for the day, but make it the might before. I like to end my day with a list of tomorrow’s TO Do’s.
– First thing in your day look over your list from yesterday and rank each task in order of importance.
– Now, get started to the most important task first.
– Show up five minutes early and prepared to all meetings, appointments, or classes.
– Use a planner/calendar to assist you and free your mind from remembering. Set notifications to meet your needs.

4. MANAGE YOUR FINANCES
Managing your money is defined here as making sure you are not spending money than you are earning and that you are able to pay your debts.
These are the Game Changers:
– Make a budget for yourself each month including entertainment, clothes, food, transportation, etc.
– Learn how to balance your bank account and all credit card statements.
– Create a plan for your savings, emergency fund, college fund, retirement plans and regularly put away the amounts from every paycheck.
– Use a computer-based tool such as Microsoft Money or Quicken for your own finances.
– Set up automatic transfers to do the allotments for you.

5. BE CONSISTENT, KEEP A SCHEDULE, Avoid Procrastination
Change happens when you disrupt your current ways and habits to create a NEW routine or ritual, that with constant and continual practice becomes your new inner process. As you repeat a new process over and over you will permeate it into your subconscious to automatically preform the routine for you.
These are the Game Changers:
– Become a disruptor of the old ways
– Become a creator of new learning, habits, processes and procedures to best serve your desired outcome.
– Enroll the help of a mentor or coach to keep you on track, spot your blocks, and hold your accountable, allowing you to gain mastery with ease and momentum.

Responsibility matters!  The moment you take responsibility for EVERYTHING in your life IS the moment you can change ANYTHING in your life.

While this article covers much on responsibility, I am certain you may have some amazing ways that you teach or model responsibility for yourself, your teams, and organizations and I would love to hear them. Please email me @ donalee@complete-solutionsllc.com with “responsibility” in the subject line and share the ways you have used to improve the skill of responsibility in yourself or others.