What is your definition of Personal Responsibility? Being responsible can mean many different things, depending on your circumstances and your world perspective. Do you live on a desperate street where more is spent on drugs than on food? Or, maybe, your world revolves around high finance, board room politics and country club society.
Where you come from does not matter. What matters is how you see your world and what you want to achieve in that world. That will define your sense of Personal Responsibility.
Born in poverty with no family structure to guide you through your early years? Struggling to survive where gangs rule and violence is the norm? What you choose to do can mean the difference between escaping to a better place or drowning in the desperation that surrounds you. Your choices can send you in one direction or the other. Own your choices and you might, just might, make it to a better place. Taking Personal Responsibility for your choices will give you a decent shot at success.
Wealthy parents, elite education, surrounded by comfort and privilege? Sounds good on paper, but what are you going to do with it? Make smart choices and a productive and fulfilling life can be yours. More important, you will have an opportunity to be of positive benefit to others, either by supporting programs that help the less fortunate or by being a role model for someone who has not yet developed positive habits. Did I say, “opportunity?” No, this is not an opportunity, it is an obligation.
Make bad choices, however, and all that you have been given will melt away to nothing. The traps are out there. A heavy party scene and an indulgent lifestyle can lead to physical deterioration and decline. Even worse, it is easy to become complacent and let each day slide by without goals and direction. This lack of motivation all but guarantees failure and mediocrity. Who wants that?
The details will differ but there is one common theme: your choices have consequences. If you live in a wealthy community and have all the security and comfort that comes with that life, your choices are no less consequential than those of someone living in back alleys, scratching for food every day.
Choices have consequences. Choose wisely.