Personal responsibility is the cornerstone to success in every area of a person’s life. The need for this is not easy for most people to address. We often find ourselves at odds with the very thing that we know will usher us into success, instead often acting from the standpoint of hope or dreams instead of action. Without taking personal responsibility in our lives we are akin to rudderless ships. We may “float” to where we intended to arrive but we are much more likely to find ourselves at an entirely different destination. While accepting personal responsibility for our lives, and all that entails, is not an easy thing to do, it is necessary and vital to our growth, maturity, and success. This in turn extends to our relationships, our health, and our jobs to name a few areas. When you properly utilize responsibility for your actions and destination you build the foundation on which the rest of your life sits.
One of the most important defining factors of personal responsibility in our lives is the need to own one’s personal behavior or actions. This need is not contingent upon what others do or say but is completely dependent upon our desire to reach our goals. It is simple to blame someone else for our actions or reactions but the truth is, we are the only ones who have a say in what we do or speak or the lack thereof. Additionally, taking responsibility for the consequences that occur from one’s words or actions is required in order to proceed to the next stepping stone in the process. This next stepping stone is learning to adapt and change the behavior exhibited. This would apply equally whether it is removing a negative behavior or integrating a positive behavior into your daily life. When we learn to own our personal actions and accept the consequences thereof, we are able to grow and mature and as a result, attain to more responsibility. There will be failures as well as successes but it is in how we handle these situations that determine our direction towards or away from success. A purposeful focus enables us to make intelligent decisions as we plan our goals and the career path we want to attain.
A person who is willing to take more personal responsibility has a higher rate of success in a college environment. There is no separation of the two if one is to be successful. A student must be able to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses and channel them to bring the most advantage to their study skills, time management, and overall academic performance. A student must be truthful and weigh problem areas, allowing room to re-evaluate or to recognize those areas in which they are excelling in order to reinforce those behaviors. It is this constant awareness and evaluation of one’s actions and behaviors that brings about the most productive results. Self awareness, instead of hindering or restricting, actually frees a student up to more proactively pursue the fulfillment of their goals.
According to Turning Teaching into Learning. The Role of Student Responsibility in the Collegiate Experience, “ Self-regulation is a reliable predictor of academic performance (Zimmerman, 1994). . . .A self-regulated learner control behavior, motivation and affect, and cognition, systematically moving toward the attainment of goals (Pintrich, 1995)." (Davis & Murrell, 1994). Being aware of motivations and factors such as moods, relational hindrances, and perspective and then planning around them can catapult a student from average to excelling very quickly. But it must be stressed that the responsibility for this is the students and not those around them.
Benefits of personal responsibility in college include a student beginning to take more initiative in the direction of his life and career, being able to more finely hone time management skills, and learning how to apply what they are learning. Student responsibility is the key to all development and learning within the educational framework. According