Personal Responsibility

I was fairly lazy in my youth. Sure, I did pretty well in high-school (3.5 GPA or there-abouts), but engineering school in college (University of Lousville Speed Scientific School) was the first life challenge I failed – – very definitively. My first semester was tough but I did well enough. My second 15-credit-hour semester was more than I could handle. Depression, fear and procrastination sunk me. One C, three D’s and two F’s. Flunkee. College dropout. Failure.

I found myself with: No drive. No ambition. No love. No hope. No future.

Depression set in deep.

A Glimpse of the Future

My life started to change after I met a young woman who would someday become my wonderful wife. I was 19. She was 17.

She was the catalyst that helped propel me into a life of responsibility, accountability, ambition, success, wealth & prosperity. It didn’t happen overnight of course, but it did happen! It’s not like she held some secret to success and shared it with me. No. Instead she imparted to me the wisdom of taking responsibility for my life. She encouraged me to decide for myself not to waste weeks and years doing nothing of substance.

I didn’t know then, but I do know now . . . . A fulfilling, productive life cannot – repeat cannot – be accomplished with a mindset of laziness, irresponsibility and zero ambition/direction.

The Importance of Personal Responsibility

Question: What kind of attitude and worldview do you think gives us the best opportunity and potential for a successful and genuinely joyful life?

Lazy/Entitled/Victim: The world owes me something. I’m supposed to be taken care of. Where is my opportunity? Where is my reward? Life sucks. Everyone’s working against me. The system (or someone/something) is to blame for my inability to succeed. Who/where/what can I tap into to obtain the values, productivity and income I need to survive?
Responsible/Ambitious/Adventurous: Opportunity is there for me to seize. My future is my own. I cannot blame others. I am not a victim. My success or failure is totally in my hands and reliant on my decisions (or indecision). No whining. No excuses. Results. Results are the only thing that matters. Don’t look outside of my own realm of thought and influence for the keys to success. Be the author of my own life.

The answer should be self-apparent. The human soul was not intended to atrophy from idiocy, stupidity, inaction, inability, victim olympics, mundaneness. It responds only to the personal creation of productive work, accomplishment, individual responsibility, and value production. An inability to realize this is a denial of reality. Plain and simple.

Humans MUST produce. Humans MUST provide value. Humans MUST value VALUE.

Otherwise, your soul will shrivel under the vast realization that you’ve wasted your life . . . produced nothing . . and have no purpose or mission.

In Summary . . .

Take ownership of YOU
No excuses . . . results
No victim mentality
Raise yourself up
Don’t expect others to help (but be gracious if they do)
No whining
Make it happen
Create your future
Take ultimate responsibility
No one else should “take care of you”
No one is responsible for your happiness
Independence: NOT co-dependence
Don’t blame anyone else
No one owes you anything – a job, a living, a future, love, nothing
Life is an opportunity – don’t waste it
Your future is solely dependent upon you and your decisions
Humans from all sorts of devastating backgrounds and upbringings have achieved incredible lives – why not you?
If you happen to have loving, caring, uplifting people in your life – consider yourself gifted. Be gracious and reciprocal. But if you don’t – refuse to let it drag you down to the bottom.
You have zero excuses – – – get out, be accountable, take responsibility, make your life into something.
Be the Author of your own life.