Responsibility is one of the most important traits a person can have. When you are responsible, you are in control of your own life. It means you can make your own decisions and take responsibility for the consequences. Of course, responsibility is not always easy. It requires hard work and determination. But when you become responsible, you set yourself up for success later in life.

You are in control of your own life.

Accepting responsibility for your actions and decisions in life is a sign of maturity. It means you are in charge of your life and know how to take action, whether in the face of triumph or failure. Accepting responsibility takes effort and a sound awareness of one's self-identity. Knowing who you are and what you desire can make it easier to take responsibility for your life.

Some people like to blame others or make excuses whenever something goes wrong in their lives. However, they lack accountability by failing to recognize their part in their failures and problems. Not taking full responsibility for your life is akin to accepting the notion that you are not in control of your life. You let others' opinions and decisions dictate your life's flow, leading to frustrations later. Ultimately, the reality is that we still hold the final say in making decisions and doing actions, regardless of what others may say or the influence they have upon us. So it's better to start taking responsibility for your life and be the director of it. Various ways can help us be more responsible with our lives.

1. Know yourself

Having greater self-awareness makes it easier to accept responsibility for your life. When you know your limitations, strengths, desires, personality, and goals, you can be more responsible by having a bigger picture of your life that's realized by yourself. You figure out realizations about yourself and are in charge of manifesting them in your life and making actions and decisions based on them. You won't easily get swayed by others, and when something occurs, you know that it's your responsibility to take care of them, whether it's something positive or negative.

2. Identify your goals

Goals help you take more responsibility for your life. However, goals that you create should be ones that matter to you and give you fulfillment upon accomplishment. Goals that are heavily influenced or imposed by others on you can make it difficult to take them seriously, and it's straightforward to blame someone when failure happens since you didn't create them much in the first place. Personal goals help give direction and positive change to your life. You can enlist the help of others to help you achieve them, but ultimately, you are responsible for their realization.

3. Practice some independence

Nothing's wrong with working with others to get things done. Sometimes, we need all the help we can get, and a group can only accomplish some tasks. However, it can make someone reliant on others, to the point where others do the heavy lifting of jobs while you make only a minor contribution. And when things fail, it's easy to point the finger at someone.

To help develop responsibility and accountability, one can try to be more independent. See if you can accomplish things by yourself. Doing things by yourself trains you to be responsible as there is no one to blame but yourself when things fail. However, when you succeed, you can only look at yourself for achieving the deed by your actions. Even in group settings, being responsible will help you fulfill your part in ensuring a project's completion. And when things fail, you still feel confident knowing you did your part and can tell that to others.

4. Stop the excuses

For some people, making excuses is the standard whenever things don't go their way or fail. Excuses are convenient for diverting responsibility on your part, at the cost of people not taking you seriously when something terrible happens again, and you have a role in causing it. Therefore, it's essential to minimize the habit of making excuses to grow as an individual and be more responsible with your actions. Moreover, making excuses can make one prone to committing the same mistakes repeatedly because one may think they can get away with it by giving reasons why something failed. So stop the excuses to improve yourself and learn how to prepare better and make plans so things will become a success, and there's no more reason for excuses.

5. Don't point your fingers at somebody or something

Similar to making excuses, blaming others for your mistakes and failures is also a way of diverting responsibility. When you play the blame game, you find other people you can make accountable for your losses and consider them the reason why such things occurred. Even people who don't have a part in the failure or things beyond your control can become scapegoats when it comes to blame. Blaming doesn't get you anywhere. It doesn't necessarily solve the problem, and you won't learn and improve from your mistakes. You may even get into conflict by involving people who have nothing to do with your mistakes.

6. Keep your word

Promises are an excellent gauge to indicate if someone is capable of personal responsibility. If somebody breaks a promise, they may not be responsible enough to ensure they fulfill what they say. Promises are not something you utter out of the blue to someone. It's like an oath; you make people expect when you promise them something. You have to be sure you are capable of fulfilling the promises you make. Keeping your word is an indicator of a responsible individual, and it can improve your relationships with others by showing them how accountable and trustworthy you are.

7. Just get started and do things

It's easy to make plans and ambitions of what you want to do in life. However, if you just let them stay as statements and don't follow through and achieve them, you fail to take responsibility. It is especially true when mistakes and failures happen. What are you going to do next? Are you just going to let yourself stay downed? Taking action to fulfill your goals or coming back from a failure gives you the power to be in charge of your life and learn to be responsible. Sometimes, you only need to get started and do things instead of wasting time thinking only about what can happen to you in the future.

Take personal responsibility into your hands.

Learning how to take responsibility into your hands can make you feel good. You think you are in control of your life and can get more motivated to work on your goals, which can eventually lead to happiness and success. On the other hand, finding excuses, blaming others, and diverting your responsibility to others makes it look like you are just an instrument to somebody else's game. Acknowledging you are primarily responsible for your life decisions can be empowering. It can make you think more positively about life and help you grow as an individual.