Personal Responsibility
Personal responsibility ‘an’ me – 75 years on.
Well, I’ve been around for a while now (yes, the give-away is in the title ie 75 years!). So, to set the scene…my parents had
Menu
What exactly is personal responsibility? Is it important to the individual and society and are ‘times a-changing’ for better – or worse?
What exactly is personal responsibility? Is it important to the individual and society and are ‘times a-changing’ for better – or worse?
For sure people have been discussing personal, individual, moral responsibility (call it whatever you like) since the Greeks ie Aristotle first brought up the subject of man’s ultimate purpose, the traits of the individual in trying to achieve the right thing ie moral obligation, which was some time BC. But in a nutshell, it adds up to looking after every facet of your own life – physically, mentally, spiritually, financially – and the rest, so you can play your best part as a good citizen. The idea being we are all stronger, when we stick to society’s rules and work together.
And, no, it isn’t something that arrives hot-wired as part of our genetic make-up – like, for example, a happy nature, or instincts, when we’re born. Personal responsibility has to be taught – it is made up of learnt skills. And the best time for acquiring – what later turns out to be essential grounding for a (or perhaps THE) most crucial life skill, is when the brain is still developing – when we’re very young. This means, in practice, that children need to be tactfully persuaded to play a constructive part in ‘stuff’ they’re involved in – like helping to pick up their toys, tidying their rooms – and the incremental rest of this sort of thing. And failure to suggest these sorts of early manoeuvres may have more far-reaching, profound – and possibly even sinister, consequences later in life than perhaps any of us ever imagined.
The trouble in being a parent and operating a best practice (ie coaching rather than criticising), seeing-it-through regime all of the time, is just not that easy. And children can become masters of excuses and lies, rationalisation, procrastination, justification and blaming others – and the rest, in their efforts to avoid being responsible for themselves and/or their behaviour. Accountabilities enforced and consequences (as well as rewards, of course) seen through form the only route to ensuring responsibilities will be met next time. Well, that’s the idea, you get the picture… exhausting!
However, it isn’t rocket science, to translate these foundational early learning skills into later life and realise that gaining personal responsibility early really does create a launch pad to better equip adults to accept full responsibility for their own actions, decisions and thoughts– and carry on the whole building process of this sort of thing for the rest of their lives.
Hopefully, the above loosely describes the derivation of personal responsibility – and, probably, most people really do – do their best to make the best of their own lives – (and for the lives of the people who are part of their individual journeys ie family, friends etc), most of the time – and ‘do their bit’ to be good citizens too.
BUT, we have been talking about an ideal (well, at least OK-ish) world, which, sadly, is often not the case. The environment we are born into (in fact, even before we’re born – as well as after) can and, all too often, does sabotage the potentiality of an individual’s life in an infinite number of ways. To give a few examples…unborn babies can be mentally damaged in the womb (as it was proven many years ago during the stress of wartime) if their mothers have addictions or are subject to extreme stress and anxiety – violence etc, during pregnancy – never mind the less than helpful environments that children can be born into – all can and does impact on their developing mental health. Parents too can remain unaware that they are passing on unhelpful traits from generation to generation – it’s called intergenerational trauma. Any of the issues mentioned here – together with an almost infinite variety of other life stressors and traumas, can dent or seriously damage an individual’s awareness and capacity – effectively disabling any personal responsibility or self reliance. In extreme cases – may be as a result of trauma (perhaps the loss of someone close), physical illness, depression, dementia etc – another infinitely variable list, people can cease to care for themselves or their surroundings – with extreme self-neglect also manifesting itself in associated mental health behaviours such as OCD and hoarding.
Fragile, damaged or disabled individuals aside – for the rest of us, personal responsibility – putting our own house in order, is key – the priority, actually.
But when we face the world – and no matter what life might throw in our path to sabotage us (illness, accidents and all those unexpected, potentially derailing twists and turns) each and every one of us should take responsibility for the consequences of our choices and actions and how our life turns out – no-one else can or should. It is just so easy to develop a negative or victim mentality and to blame others or the externals of life – which really doesn’t help in terms of quality of life or mental satisfaction – no matter when or where we ‘learnt’ these ‘skills’.
We’ve looked at the roots of personal responsibility and a handful of reasons why some people are disabled in this respect. Obviously, everyone is unique, but, somehow, we are bound together by the commonalities of simply being human beings – of which personal responsibility should surely be a steady common pulse running through the individuals that make up our society.
As we’ve already said earlier – to a greater or lesser degree, most people would seem to try and make the best of their lives/be good citizens most of the time – but are they, or is our society trending away from this sort of attitude? Certainly, in times past – when people had lived through wars, they believed in doing their stoic best ‘for King and Country’ and the common good – through times thick and thin. And there were unmistakeable signs recently during the ‘all in it’ Covid pandemic that people felt motivated to pull together in an extra big way. But, what in general do YOU think is the attitude to personal responsibility? Do you think perhaps there is a mind-set where people automatically reach out – expect to reach out, for external help, for happiness or a quick-fix solution in the shape of, perhaps a pill, a counselling session etc – ie look to our health care system, rather than building up and upon their own inner resources first?
As we touched on earlier, actually, mental health is not hard-wired at birth, and everyone is massively affected and moulded by their ongoing environment – but are we now, and increasingly, looking and expecting to find the road to happiness externally? Do we equally look to blame externals when our mood is low and we are unhappy? And is it possible that within the mental health – and other associated industries, there is a mind-set that believes society is the problem and that in general people are not responsible for the consequences of their actions – but social justice (ie equality across society – economic, political, social – including the right to good healthcare etc) is. A mind-set that may be slowly slowly eroding the natural inbuilt ability of our brain designed to reward needs met with a happy feeling. A mind-set that is perhaps equally undermining our self-reliance skills and inadvertently encouraging the blame for negative emotions to be firmly placed outside the door of any personal responsibility.
So … where are we when it comes to personal responsibility? Obviously, everyone is uniquely different and nobody should be making sweeping statements.
May be there just is an ‘overkill’ attitude towards mental health these days – and may be society’s ‘pendulum’ has swung too far away from our stiff-upper-lipped past, in this direction – perhaps also largely ‘stoked’ by the media (and that’s another story). We’ve all got mental (alongside physical) health ie just part of being a human being. And, actually, when someone seeks out/reaches out in some shape or form for help – towards, say, a therapist, rather than bottling up ‘stuff’ their whole life (with the spectrum of tragic implications/consequences possibly attached to that), may be that should be viewed as an act of supreme personal responsibility.
At the end of the day – yes, society as a whole needs to be mindful – it can’t be right when an elderly individual getting around on their mobility scooter is knifed, or a young child is shot because they happened to be in the way of someone crazed by drugs – just to mention a couple of recently reported incidents. But, it has to be all about the individual – each tiny component, no matter where they ‘sit’ or work, each doing their moment-to-moment best – plus what is right (not always the same thing ie the need to opt for that middle way) for themselves alongside the society they are a vital part of.
If one component fails – potentially we all fail. Could that be the truth of personal responsibility? May be Aristotle knew a thing or two – even all those years ago!
Well, no matter what, it’s certainly a weighty subject…which is why ‘take 9 lives, at least…’ has decided to make Personal Responsibility the ‘star of our show’ – alongside baby first steps to start to put your own house in order (apparently, the recommended way to get going)….just, in case, you haven’t already. Well, you have to start somewhere – don’t you?
Well, I’ve been around for a while now (yes, the give-away is in the title ie 75 years!). So, to set the scene…my parents had
I think Personal responsibility is supremely important in multiple ways. Firstly, health – taking responsibility for your own health is something that I think is
I’ve never really thought of self responsibility before until you mentioned it. Most of my life I’ve been dominated by others. Firstly as a child,
My very dear long-term friend – and ex-boss, Ken, died a month or two ago – he was in his early eighties. I have decided
I realised I needed to rediscover my identity, find out what I did and didn’t like, what I wanted to do and what it was
“It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what volunteering gives back to the volunteer but it does so by the shedload” In my own naive way
“Spending all day wishing things were better doesn’t actually improve anything. There’s a degree of acceptance…” I’m a 30 something single mum of a teenager. I’ve
“When I was first diagnosed I did not know anyone with Type 1 diabetes and I found it comforting to be able to communicate with
When I turned 60, I developed a heart condition and was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and Early Onset Atherosclerosis. Initially I wouldn’t accept this
Seven years ago, when I was approaching 70, I discovered ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’ by Dr Norman Doidge. His research claimed I could regain
“I suddenly woke with a shock to realise I am totally disabled in terms of managing modern life”. To give you further insight, I thought
I have been told many times (no guesses by who?) that I hold no personal responsibility but don’t necessarily agree with this! What is this,
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. This website is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Content should not be considered a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment. The reader assumes full responsibility for consulting a qualified health professional regarding health conditions or concerns and before starting a new diet or health program.