Responsibly Mature

I remember as a teen getting more responsibility. At the onset, I thought I was the man and was becoming a mature adult because I had more requirements. But after many mess ups, I recognized that more responsibility was really a burden that came in the form of more work and stress. I learned that just because I had a lot of responsibility didn't mean that I was great at handling what I had been given. I (and maybe you too) continue to have responsibilities that just seem to be a big burden, more work, more stress, and more difficult to handle.

Success in life comes from being responsible for what we do have in our hands. This week I want to give you some helpful tips that have help me handle my responsibilities and stand up to my commitments.

3 Core Tips

1. Cope – Learning to cope with problems instead of blowing up, fighting, or giving up is a big step to being responsibly mature. Life will bring frustrations and disappointments but valuing commitment calls for coping (putting up with them) to accomplish the required goal or goals.

Work to be optimistic about every situation good or bad. Allow them to empower and motivate you to achieve your goals. Don't visualize yourself as a helpless victim, who can't change their circumstances. Instead, work to improve your situations at all cost at from all angles. Don't give up! Always believe that there is a way through the mess. Step back, take a deep breath and keep swinging at your responsibility. You can make it!

2. Respond – Responding properly and following through with our commitments is a sign of being responsibly mature. It's easy to point the finger and find fault in the other person to avoid our responsibilities; however,. they will not go away because we don't like them.

Owning up to responsibilities will require you to avoid vague excuses and playing the blame game.  Think through your choices or decisions before you respond to them. Value your words and your commitments. Allow your responses to reflect mature responsibility.

3. Humble – Recently  I was in a meeting where one of the key elements discussed was how achieving success requires an oxymoron of sorts: to be on top we must lift others up, to lead we must follow, and to impact others the most we must serve. All of these twists require us to be humble to acheive the success we may desire. Humility is key to being responsible. It is controlling our opinions or keeping ourselves low on the importance scale. If we wish to be more responsible, we must not give in to selfishness. We must be humble.

Your humility is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of being responsible. True responsibility is more than “getting YOU to the top”, it's about getting your whole team who you are responsible for to the new level you seek.

Summary –   Opportunities to be irresponsible will come and you may submit to them because of the short term benefits but the long term effects can be detrimental. Learn to be more responsible by: coping  with the tough issues, responding properly to the call of duty, and being humble when severing others. You are at the center of changing your responsible level.

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