Without personal responsibility there is no progress, no achievements, no victories. This psychological dimension has a great impact on the social sphere. If we all took a little more responsibility for our behaviors and actions, we could form another kind of reality; a more advanced, respectful and, above all, human person.
At one of his lectures, Viktor Frankl said Americans should have given the iconic Statue of Liberty another name. According to this famous psychiatrist, it should be called the “statue of responsibility. “
- This suggestion was based on an idea that can be applied to any circumstance: freedom is an inherent faculty to the human being that can only be exercised through responsibility.
To be responsible is to take care of yourself and understand that every act or action has a consequence. Similarly, as psychotherapist Albert Ellis has pointed out, many people find it easier to avoid certain responsibilities than to face them.
For example, what psychologists see in therapy sessions is people’s inability to take full responsibility for what’s happening to them, is a defense mechanism that makes it easy to blame your partner, family, colleagues or politicians for your misfortune. discomfort in others, ignoring that often the key to change is in them.
Sometimes you stumble. You have pain in your feet, the shoe makes you uncomfortable and you feel that there is something inside that hurts you every time you take a step, but you don’t stop to see what happens, instead of sitting down and removing the stone, you blame the way you walk or the “bad quality” shoes you wear.
Life is sometimes unfair, especially for those who don’t take control of their own lives to try to solve their own problems.
Confucius said that what is inside us attacks us more than what is outside, that is, it is true that what surrounds you determines your happiness, it is also true that social and economic factors or a traumatic childhood can condition you, however, the main enemy of your well-being is yourself, not the context or your own past.
Personal responsibility, therefore, is to commit to creating beneficial change. As it does? Make bold decisions, take action, know what you need, and work on them. First, you must stop blaming others and play a leadership role in the reality you want to create.
It is also important to remember that no one comes into the world with perfect mental health and the test of adversity, you have to learn to look good, what psychotherapy can help you, it proposes strategies to generate changes that bring you closer to a balance. life and greater well-being.
“Parents can only give good advice and point to good paths, but the final training of a person’s character is in their hands. “Anne Frank-
Your stone? This can take many forms. Sometimes it is things that take away your peace and infuriate you and even anger you; other times, you carry the pain of a rupture or disappointment.
This may sound familiar. In such cases, personal responsibility also involves taking control of one’s emotions.
You cannot carry this suffering with you all the time as if it were that uncomfortable and painful stone in your shoe; you have to remove the stone. This means first accepting and understanding the emotional impact. After that, you have to regulate it, act and make new decisions.
As a study by the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London (UCL) explains, working on your emotional responsibility brings you closer to happiness.
Throughout your life, you’ll not only find stones along the way, you’ll also see dead end and cliffs. It is true that no one prepares you for these unexpected situations, even when they occur, you have two options.
The first and easiest is to take a step back, give up and go back to where you came from, but this is not the right thing to do. After all, personal responsibility also means that you must understand that unforeseen circumstances are part of life, people make mistakes, and adversity can happen anyway.
So what’s the second option? Be responsible, brave and committed. Initially, you’ll have to take a step back, yes, but only to gain momentum.
In conclusion, you must understand that you cannot continue to blame others for your discomfort, you can and deserve to be happy again!However, you must make decisions and, most importantly, take responsibility for your own life.