We have all heard about the concept of personal responsibility. How do you define responsibility? I know for some of us hearing “Are you responsible?” brings up thoughts of blame. It’s a “Who did this?” and not in a good way. 

What does responsibility really mean? I looked it up in Merriam-Webster, and found this definition: “the quality or state of being responsible.” Don’t you love it when the definition basically includes the word you are defining? If you look at the word responsible, you will find, among other definitions, “able to answer for one’s conduct or obligations.”

To me responsibility, and particularly personal responsibility, means having the ability to respond. (I know I just used the word in the definition!) It includes no fault or blame to anyone, including ourselves. It is just being able to look at a situation, recognizing that we created it and deciding what to do. We created it, so we can un-create it. We can re-create it. We can totally get rid of it. It is our choice to make changes or answer in whatever fashion is right, no blame attached. That to me is really empowering.

My question to you is, How do you define responsibility?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2014 at 10:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.