Becoming an Adult and Taking Responsibility for Choices You Make

I think my generation has a few problems, but one I see is people not wanting or willing to take responsibility for the choices they have made and the actions they have taken. I wrote an article a handful of days ago talking about taking chances which is necessary, but also you need to realize if you take that chance and it doesnt pay off as expected, you must be willing to deal with the consequences whatever they may be.

I have a brother who struggles with a few problems like depression and anxiety, similar to me, but the ways we think about our actions and the choices we make are very different. While I tend to blame myself for things that might go wrong, or parts of my life that arent successful, he wants to blame the world or other people. I think we are both on two different parts of the spectrum and the way we deal with our situations both arent the healthiest, but there are big differences. The inward blame from myself often leads me to try to think what I can do better next time, which is a better outcome compared to him saying “well it wasnt my fault” and letting the problem repeat itself again.

I bring this up a few times but mostly because I completely believe it, but our lives are not something that just happened. We didnt wake up and find ourselves in the situations we are in, but rather our situations are a product of millions of small choices we make everyday. Many of these choices are very minuscule at the time but may be a contributing factor to something that happenes later. An easy example would be something like it snows out and you decide to wear sneakers and go to work. In a hurry you walk into your job and slip on the floor and embarrass yourself in front of everyone. (something I have done before)

Rather than saying “why does this happen to me” you have to realize there were many different outcomes where you might not have fallen. Perhaps you left a bit early and brought a change of shoes, or perhaps you wore snow boots instead. These may seem trivial and we might not realize it later but these are the choices that will make a difference in the long run. You falling, while a complete accident was still partially your fault, which is the point I am trying to get to. Maybe if you wore snow boots you still might have fallen, but you still tried to stack the odds in your favor.

Taking responsibility even when something might have been an accident or not 100% your fault shows a large amount of maturity. This is something that I see many people my age lack now and granted many of them will learn, but many still will remain coddled and wont. I see many people blame others for their situations on social media or in the news but they refuse to even share one ounce of the blame for being in the situation. I just think this is something to think about especially for the younger people out there.

-Calaber24p