Excerpt from

Responsibility

Who carries the responsibility for your life?

Life is a promise, fulfill it.
                                   Mother Teresa

There are two kinds of responsibility. The first kind of responsibility is a given. We are born with it. It is our own responsibility for our life, for how we feel, for what we experience and what we do with our lives. No one can take this responsibility away from us. It is our life. We are the ones that ultimately experience it and reap the rewards and consequences of our actions.

The second kind of responsibility is learned. Someone taught us to do the chores, to take out the garbage, to go to school and later to work. These were not the choices we would have made had we not been forced to accept rules, regulations and commitments. Although we may seek to avoid or even rebel from this kind of responsibility, this is not where the greatest difficulties with responsibility lie.

The problem with responsibility occurs when we forget our primary responsibility to ourselves. It is no wonder that this happens, because we are rarely reminded to do so. The pull instead is to be responsible outside of ourselves, and ultimately, to do what others want us to do. For our family, employers, teachers and even our friends, there is little payoff when we start taking care of and honoring ourselves .  .  .