Most of us have been taught to understand responsibility through the expectations of other people.
Do you feel like you are a responsible person?
What does being responsible mean to you?
Does it mean doing what you’re told?
Fulfilling obligations?
Do you feel compelled to be responsible because it is the right thing to do?
Responsibility as Obedience
From a young age, responsibility is often imposed on us by external forces.
Parents tell their children to be responsible.
Teachers tell their students to be responsible.
Bosses tell their employees what they are responsible for.
Society tells us what a responsible adult is supposed to do.
But beneath many of these messages is a different meaning:
Do what you are told.
When a boss says, “You are responsible for this,” the underlying message is often that you must complete the task as instructed or there will be a problem.
When parents tell their child to make a responsible decision, they often mean:
Make the decision we would approve of.
Follow the path we believe is right for you.
Avoid choices that make us uncomfortable.
Society may define a responsible person as someone who follows the conventional path, meets external expectations, does not question authority, and fulfills the obligations assigned to them.
In this understanding, responsibility becomes obedience.
It means conforming to somebody else’s idea of how we should live rather than consciously choosing how we want to live for ourselves.
This is not true responsibility.
Our Ability to Respond
If we break down the word responsibility, we find its true meaning:
Response - Ability
Responsibility is our ability to consciously choose how we would like to respond to every single moment in our lives.
Response - Ability is a measure of how able we are to respond with intention and awareness to every experience in our lives rather than impulsively reacting.
A reaction happens automatically, unconsciously.
Something occurs, an emotion arises, a thought pattern triggers, and we immediately react.
Reacting is primal; it is unconscious; it is victimhood.
We become angry and lash out.
We become afraid and retreat.
We become anxious and worried.
Something doesn’t go our way, so we search for someone or something outside of ourselves to blame.
A conscious response is different.
In the moment, we create space between what happens and how we would like to respond.
We become aware of what we are thinking and feeling.
We remember our values.
We decide how we want to be in that moment.
True responsibility is not the obligation to respond in the way somebody else demands or what society deems as morally correct.
It is recognizing our ability to consciously choose how we would like to respond to every single moment in our lives therefore creating our reality.
Accepting Full Responsibility
Being responsible means accepting full accountability for every single outcome in our lives.
This is one of the most empowering things we can do.
Because when we take full responsibility for our lives, we release the urge to blame anyone or anything outside of ourselves for anything going on in our lives.
Every decision we make, every action we take, and every situation and circumstance in our lives, we create.
Realizing this is releasing victimhood.
Whenever we blame another person, our circumstances, society, our past, or anything outside of us for the reality of our lives, we give our creative power away.
Believing that external forces: the economy, interest rates, the government, our employers, our parents, our childhood trauma, our social class, and other people have substantial power in determining the major outcomes of our lives…
This is the belief that keeps us trapped in victimhood, stripped of our creative power, and disconnected from our own divinity.
We are the creators of our own reality.
When we tell ourselves that something outside of us is in control.
That something outside of us created our reality…
We are a victim.
Blame completely strips us from the creative power we are all inherently born with.
Taking full responsibility for every situation, circumstance, and experience in our life returns our creative power to us.
Click for in-depth scientific breakdown of law of attraction explaining how we create reality with our thoughts:
Responsibility Is Creative Freedom
Responsibility is often presented as a burden.
It sounds like something heavy we have to carry.
Something we are required to do.
But true responsibility is freedom.
It is the recognition that, in every moment, we can consciously choose how we want to respond, who we want to be, and what we want to do AKA what we want to create in our lives.
We may not consciously choose every circumstance.
But we can take full responsibility for how we meet life.
We can choose whether we respond from fear or love.
We can choose whether we react impulsively or act with awareness.
We can choose whether our response aligns with our highest virtues and true values.
Nobody else can make that choice for us.
That choice is our freedom.
Building Unshakable Trust
Every time we consciously choose our response and take responsibility for its outcome, we build trust in ourselves.
We begin to recognize that we are capable of meeting whatever life places in front of us.
Nothing happens by coincidence.
Everything happens for a reason.
We learn to trust our ability to respond with the understanding that everything is an opportunity to learn, grow, expand our awareness and become the best version of ourselves.
We let go of the urge to blame external circumstances for our outcomes.
This is how we begin building unshakable trust in ourselves and in our ability to create our own reality.
We trust ourselves to respond rather than react.
We trust ourselves to make decisions aligned with our highest virtues.
We trust ourselves to accept the consequences of those decisions without blaming anyone or anything else.
We trust ourselves to create our own reality.
Choose Your Response
True responsibility is not doing what we are told.
It is not allowing parents, bosses, teachers, society, or any other external authority to decide what the right response must be for us.
It is becoming conscious enough to choose how we would like to respond to every single moment in our lives with intention and awareness.
It is taking full ownership of every single aspect of our lives based on the realization that we are the creators of our own reality.
It is releasing blame and reclaiming our creative power.
It is choosing how we want to be rather than impulsively reacting from unconscious habits.
And with every conscious response, we move closer to embodying our best selves and unlocking our fullest potential.
Responsibility is not an obligation imposed upon us.
Responsibility is creative power.
Alchemy.
Watch the full video perspective here: