Being a responsible person and therefore being trusted with responsibilities by others is a quality I thought was desired by most. I was also naïve enough to think that people realized their responsibilities and took care of them – man was I wrong.
There are certain things in life that I wish I could wrap my head around, and the “inability” of some to accept responsibility is definitely top five. To be responsible is a characteristic that will be valuable for the entirety of any person’s life. It is something that is great to have in your back pocket when you get asked that famous question “What are your three best qualities?” in an interview and will generally help you be productive and successful. It shapes the character of a person and sheds a positive light. So, what reason is there to not want to be better? Why is responsibility so hard for people to deal with?
For instance, Joe tells Jane to do something. Jane tells Joe she is on top of it and will take care of it ASAP. Jane gets wrapped up in her chaotic life and forgets to fulfill the promise she made to Joe. Joe gets in trouble by his boss because the task he put Jane on did not get fulfilled and then, when asked why she did not follow through, Jane acts like she never even gave Joe her word.
Why would Jane simply say, “I am so sorry, Joe. I just completely forgot to do it. I got really busy, and it slipped my mind. I will try to do better from now on.”
Would it be so hard to say? Better yet, would it be so hard to actually do? I doubt Jane would suffer from trying to be a better, more responsible person.
Sometimes it is the simple things in life that cause responsibility to come into question, things like forgetting to do an assignment or simply saying no when asked to do something just because the person doesn’t want to take the time to do it. Then there are times when dismissal of responsibility is astonishing.
For example, when you have a child, that little human is your responsibility from that point on. It does not necessarily matter if that incident was planned or if ten years into that child’s life you decide it just isn’t for you. Too. Stinking. Bad. Just because you don’t want that to be your responsibility does not mean that it should be someone else’s.
It seems there are some people living around me who either cannot or refuse to grasp this concept. If you choose to live your life without any purpose, any responsibility for anything at all, that is purely your decision. But, are you really living? What is life worth if when it comes to an end you can’t look back and be proud of your character?
I say, try. At least if you accept a task or a challenge or a duty or what have you and you fail you can clean your slate and move forward, learning from that experience.
So, the next time you don’t turn in your assignment, try not to feed your professor a load of crap that no one will believe anyway. All you have to do is own up to your laziness and fix it. And when you move on to bigger and better responsibilities, like the well-being of another person, if you will, don’t lie your way out of it or push it off to the side as if it doesn’t concern you. Someone is depending on you to follow through.