There comes a time in everyone’s life when we have to sit back and analyze our lives when everything seems like it’s not going right. We put ourselves in the predicaments we run into and at times like this we can blame no one but ourselves we have to take charge and claim personal responsibility for our lives and everything going on in it. The same thing applies to academic success; you must learn to accept personal responsibility to be in control of your college destiny. This is a big step to take which is not that easy for people to do. Accepting and acknowledging that WE are responsible for the choices we make in life and our education will give us the upper hand and allow us to take control. Personal responsibility is taking accountability for one’s own actions which is the major step towards becoming a successful individual in society and as a college student. When taking on accepting personal responsibility we have to be honest with ourselves and stop blaming others and situations for our downfalls. We have to get over these mishaps in our past and focus on TODAY. We need to focus on who we are as of now and where we want to go in the future. We can start by acknowledging and understanding discrepancies in our lives that go against the life we are trying to lead. Taking action towards eliminating these flaws will lead us down the path to success. We have to also acknowledge those times when we felt in control and our life was going in the direction we wanted, what we were doing at that time, and what steps did we take to get to that point. Reflecting on those times will give us confidence and encouragement that we will be able to take our lives back.

When attending college, personal responsibility plays a big part when trying to obtain college success. We are on our own and we control of whether we fail or succeed. Mommy is not there to wake us up for class or keep on top of us about doing our class work. We are forced to learn personal responsibility and it’s important to develop this skill to survive college, especially when taking online courses. When opting to complete courses online personal responsibility is mandatory. Being a first time online student has showed me how important it is to keep up with due dates, reading material, and participation requirements.

When taking on personal responsibility in online education it’s good to have a plan or strategy that will help you be successful. To practice personal responsibility you can keep a daily planner or sticky notes helping you to remember important due dates. It’s also helpful to set alerts in your cell phone as well. Time management is also very important when it comes to personal responsibility. It’s essential to learn ways to manage your time wisely in an online course. There is a lot of material to read and it should be completed in a timely fashion. Waiting to the last minute or cramming it in one day can be overwhelming and is not beneficial. A good way to help manage that your time is taking advantage of downtimes throughout the day. That time can be used to read material, post, or complete an assignment. It will free up more time to handle other things that are going on in your life.

We all want to acquire success as a person and as a student. But are we willing to take the steps and complete the hard work to achieve it? We first have to be willing to take the fault for all the times we have messed up in life and in school. Some of us have made a mistake on a resume or didn’t put much effort into an interview that caused us not to land a good job. We have slacked in our class work and missed days in school that caused us not to do so good in a class. That’s something that we must not dwell on and let define our destiny; we have to take personal responsibility, learn from the mistake and move on in a more positive direction. For example, this is the second time I am taking this class. The first time around I did not put forth much effort in the class. I slacked on my participation and did not perform well in my Learning Team. It was my first online class and I did terrible. Due to my lack of effort in completing my participation requirements I was dropped from the class and forced to take it again. I don’t let it get me down; in this class I have taken personal responsibility to do what I need to do to pass the course. I plan to continue to have this positive attitude to become a better person in society and student in college.