On Responsibility

How responsibility helps you:

1. It provides the foundation of success. Sociological professor Tony Campolo points out the importance of having a strong sense of responsibility. Of the American system, he writes:
       While I think it lays down the principles that make for the best political system ever devised, the Constitution has one basic flaw. It clearly delineates the Bill of Rights, but it nowhere states a Bill of Responsibilities...Government that ensures people their rights but fails to clearly spell out their responsibility, fails to call them to be the kind people God wants them to be.
2. Responsibility, handled correctly, leads to more responsibility.
3. It maximizes ability and opportunity.
4. Responsibility, over time, builds a solid reputation.

How to be responsible:

1. Start where you are. Each time you make a responsible decision, you become a more responsible person. Successful people take personal responsibility for their actions and their attitudes. Responsibility is always a choice, and only you can make it.
2. Choose your friends wisely.
3. Stop blaming others.
4. Learn responsibility's major lessons.
• Recognize that gaining success means practicing self-discipline.
• What you start, finish.
• Know when others are depending on you.
• Don't expect others to step in for you.
5. Make tough decisions and stand by them.
6. Live beyond yourself. Serve others.

Source: Talent Is Never Enough. Discover the Choices That Will Take You Beyond Your Talent (2007) by John C. Maxwell.