Responsibility
re·spon·si·bil·i·ty
Owning your part, without blaming and without beating yourself up. Responsibility is your ability to respond.
Another way of seeing it
Read the word slowly: response-ability. It isn't a weight you're sentenced to carry. It's the power to choose how you answer whatever life hands you. The moment you stop asking 'whose fault is this?' and start asking 'what can I do now?', you get your power back.
In relationships
Say 'that was my part' quickly and cleanly when you get it wrong. It disarms almost any argument, and makes it easier for the other person to own theirs.
In the ordinary day
Pick one thing you've been blaming on someone or something else. Ask, 'What's the one part of this I can change?' Then do it.
A question to sit with
What are you waiting for someone else to fix?
Carry this with you
Your part is your power.
Where it comes from
From the Latin respondere, to answer or respond. To be responsible is, at its root, to be able to answer for something.
Try this today
Ask 'what's my part?' about one thing you've been blaming elsewhere, then act on it.
Journal prompts for Responsibility
- What am I waiting for someone else to fix?
- Where did I blame, when I could have responded?
- What is one part of a current problem that is truly mine?
Did this word resonate with you today?
Know someone who might need this word?