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Illustrating Personal Responsibility

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Illustrating Personal Responsibility Laura Carreras Gen 200 6-16-13 Shelly Pickens

Personal responsibility means something different to each individual. It is a facet of oneself that each individual should endeavor to improve upon. It can instill a sense of self-worth and a strong work ethic. It can help lay the foundation upon ones personal greatness will rest. Personal responsibility is taking aim at a goal and seeing it through, despite the obstacles that bar the way. It means owing oneself the chance of doing the best possible job. Personal responsibility means to take accountability for ones decisions and actions, learning from the outcome, whether good or bad. Personal responsibility wasn’t always something I took seriously, and suffice to say the results were telling. Reflecting back, I see now how my lack of personal responsibility was a major hindrance. Once I decided to be a more responsible adult, things only changed for the better. Back when I was living in Santa Barbara, I made it my mission to work full time as a medical assistant, while also going to school. The hours were exceptionally long and my personal life had to be put on hold, but it was personal responsibility that allowed me to look within and see it through. Without personal responsibility, we do not learn from our errors, and instead will continue to make them, or even worse, blame others for our failings. When people are around for you to place blame on, then it is easy to not be in control of one’s own life. Blame is the easiest thing to do when you fail. (Weaver, 2003) We sometimes spend a great deal of time avoiding

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