The first thing that comes to mind is to speak and act truthfully in all you do.
Responsibility is something you take up and carry on your shoulders. It’s signing up for the challenge of remaining accountable and committed to your choices, decisions, actions and more, while owning up to any positive, negative or neutral consequences that follow.
It’s acting on consistently making, working or trying to act in the spirit of both doing and choosing the “right” or “good” thing.
The right or good thing isn’t always going to be easy. At times, it will be the most difficult thing you do. You need to be honest with yourself and others. Sometimes it will involve saying or doing things you don’t want to say or do, but what serves for the greater good, either yours or that of the other.
It means that you need to sacrifice parts of yourself or your time when required, letting go of certain things to make room for others. You may not want to do it, but at times you will need to.
It means you need to be able to take care of yourself and anything required for your health and well being, at the same time as getting your work done and managing the necessities of life, such as shopping, cooking, washing and cleaning.
It means knowing when to sacrifice the present for the future, but not at the cost of your humanity.
It means acknowledging that both you and others are imperfect beings, who need to understand and forgive each other due to human erring and limitations.
It means trying to leave a person or place in better condition after your interaction.
Responsibility is asking yourself what you can do to make things better and what you can avoid doing to prevent them from getting worse.
“Everybody is responsible for their own actions. It’s easy to point the finger at somebody else, but a real man, a real woman, a real person knows when it’s time to take the blame and when to take responsibility for their own actions.”
– MARCUS SMART
The Point of Meaning 