Personal Responsibility Essay

Gen/200
Due Sunday November 4, 2012
Mrs. Susan Ward

Taking action of personal responsibilities, can simplify college success.

I. Learning to maintain personal responsibilities, simplifies college success. Once a student takes control of his personal responsibilities, he can learn to maintain them and make college successful. To define personal responsibility is accepting the result of your actions instead of blaming others for them. In other words personal responsibility is comparable to accountability. Which is defined as “the quality or state of being accountable; especially: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions”. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountability). Chances are most of the students are already on track for success. Personal Responsibilities are the decisions students make, to live up to their own ideas and expectations. They are thoughts and perceptions of how the world should be. These responsibilities add morals and values throughout life. As students discover new information these ideas and expectations will change. They can either help the student grow by making his thoughts and perceptions stronger. Or have the opposite effect and make him change his mind completely. They are the reasons for students’ success or failure. This information will help strengthen his thoughts and perceptions. He must take action to become successful. This can be something as simple as him paying bills on time or as difficult as balancing work, school and family. When it comes down to it being successful is all about making proper choices in life.

a. One example of personal responsibility is taking care of the household. When paying utility bills, rent/mortgage or car payments he is taking action and accepting responsibility to pay those bills. He is the only one who’s going to be held accountable if he fails. The consequences of this failure could possibly be the disconnection of utilities, eviction/foreclosure notices, and car repossessions. b. For students to be responsible they must accept the fact that they will have to spend time and money for success. They must choose how this time and money is spent. Senator Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) said “Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself”.

i. He chooses to go to college and obtain further education; therefore it becomes his Personal Responsibility to succeed.
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II. College success will depend on the ability to maintain those personal responsibilities. An anonymous speaker wrote in Vital Speeches of the Day, 69(19), p604. What you don't get out of a college education: Personal success skills necessary to exceed in school and in life stated “Success in college depends on a willingness to make the effort to learn as well as an appetite for knowledge.” This means students have to make good choices, balance life, school and work. This speech also talks about the difference in perception in high school students and college students. Most high school students that start college think it’s a lot like high school. Most of them are shocked when they realize this is not the case. High school students think it’s the responsibility of the teacher to teach us the information that is required for the class. In fact the students are responsible for teaching themselves in college. The instructors and teachers are there to guide students on their journeys. (Anonymous 2003). This can be accomplished by making a list of personal responsibilities. These responsibilities should be written down and ranked according what’s most important. Students should create a daily scheduled of their personal responsibilities giving themselves time slots when things need to be done or how long it takes to do certain tasks. These can be tuned into small daily goals which will help him achieve success. Once the student gets everything in order he should follow this routine until he’s comfortable with it. Once this is done it allows him to add extra personal responsibilities like taking an extra class for example. He will find it easier having a set scheduled in accomplishing his daily goals. This will keep him on task and become permanent daily processes.

a. Some of the personal responsibilities of college success are attendance, staying focused and maintaining a good GPA. Going to work and going to school have the same personal responsibility. To be successful at work employees must show up every day. This is the only way to get a paycheck. This concept also applies to college classes. This is a job where education is the main goal. Both work and school have different goals but they both are equally important.

b. When organizing personal responsibilities students should observe their actions and surroundings. Actions have a great impact on personal responsibilities. If an employee chooses not to go to work they’re choosing an action that has a negative result. The result is not having a paycheck. If this action persists the result might be loss of a job. While students think of actions they must also be aware of their surroundings. Surroundings can be very distracting. Students must pay close attention to these. Distractions can be various things for example friends calling all the time while trying to get homework done. Students need to be proactive and honest with their friends and family about their distraction.

III. The most important thing is to plan ahead and set student expectations. To begin the process of reframing accountability in academic success is setting expectations that include student responsibilities and social environment. (Murray, M. C. 2006) That’s the key in simplifying college success. When students plan ahead they guarantee themself success for the future. By making the personal responsibility list and incorporating it with all aspects of their life they will find success in work and school. a. Writing personal responsibilities down helps students put things in perspective. It gives them an idea of how they see things. It lets then see what is really important and what might not be so important. It will let them see things that might need attention now and things that can be done later. Writing things down is a great way to keep on track and stay focused. b. By making improvements to these strategies students will increase their opportunity for success. By paying attention how things are working in their life and adapting to them will help students reach that success.
In conclusion personal responsibilities are ideas and expectations that students hold themselves to. They make up their opinions and are the basis for their decisions. Students who take control of their personal responsibilities are accepting accountability. Accepting these responsibilities can open up time and put what’s most important to them in perspective. Students must make a plan and stick to it. Changes should be made accordingly. This should be the first step towards making college successful. Students must take action in their life, make the hard decisions and live with them. If they have a positive attitude then the outcome will be positive. If they have a negative attitude then the outcome will be negative. Taking personal responsibility is the first part in recognizing how successful he can be. He must make the decision to be successful or risk failure.

References
Anonymous (2003). Vital Speeches of the Day, 69(19), 604-604. What you don't get out of a college education: Personal success skills necessary to exceed in school and in life stated “Success in college depends on a willingness to make the effort to learn as well as an appetite for knowledge.”

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountability

Murray, M. C. (2006). Reframing responsibility for academic success: A causal model measuring the impact of student attributes in the first year of college. University of Maryland, College Park. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses ,, 246-246 p