Taking Responsibility
“The price of greatness is responsibility,” said Winston Churchill in a speech delivered to Harvard University. For Churchill, this sentiment was connected inextricably to his work in protecting his country during the heat of World War II. Though most of us are not in the midst of a physical battle, the challenges and stresses that we face are battles of their own kind. And this principle applies remarkably well in just about every circumstance. In order to be great, we must first learn what it means to take responsibility for our actions.
In this blog series, we will turn towards the subject of career longevity. While many of our readers are working on developing the necessary skills to build a career for themselves, they still wonder whether they have what it takes to make something that will last. This series is offered in the hope that you will be able to make a solid foundation for a long-lasting career. And to begin, we look first at the subject of responsibility.
Attitude, Not Action
It can be tempting to think of responsibility as a thing that you do. We say things like “you must take responsibility,” and we begin to think of it as a one-time action. You may have fallen prey to this way of thinking if you looked at this article and thought, “I’ve already taken responsibility.”
If only it were that easy.
The fact is that responsibility is not an action, but an attitude. It is, to borrow a cliché, a lifestyle. And this is where any success must begin. Yes, there will be that turning point in your life when you first learn to take responsibility for your present actions and for the future results that they bring. But it must not stop at that—it should be renewed every second of every day.
This approach to responsibility as an attitude or a way of life can be very helpful for people who feel overwhelmed by the future and all of its uncertainties. Because although taking responsibility for your life and actions does mean making investments in the future, this way of thinking is ultimately grounded in the present moment. If you are actively choosing to take responsibility, it means that you are looking to take positive steps in the here and now.
Discipline, Not Motivation
Responsibility is vital if we are ever going to make for ourselves the life and career that we’re aiming at. Responsibility is what tells us when our actions are not aligning with our goals, and it helps us to know when we must make changes and when we simply must stay the course. But while taking responsibility can help us to gain insights about the best path forward, it is not sufficient to actually bring about those positive actions. We might think of responsibility as the GPS that tells us whether or not we’re going in the right direction. But to make any real progress, it is not enough to simply know where to go—we need the right fuel to take us to our destination.
For some, motivation has proven to be a useful tool. Motivation taps into your goals and desires to help you accomplish the necessary tasks. And it can definitely be a powerful force to drive you towards concrete, positive actions. By reflecting on the kind of life you want to have in the future, you will be more determined to live well in the present.
I would absolutely recommend that you reflect on your motivations for pursuing a long-lasting and successful career. Interiorizing these positive reasons can be very helpful, especially when you are first starting out. But the hard truth is that motivation is not enough. What is essential is discipline.
Discipline is the quality that enables a person to continue to do hard things even when they don’t want to. A person who lacks discipline is a person who simply will not find the success that they desire. Discipline is what will help you flourish in the long run because it is a dependable source of fuel. Human experience tells us that there are times when we just don’t feel like doing the work that we know needs to be done. And although sometimes our motivations will give us that much-needed drive to overcome the obstacle, it is also just as likely that we simply won’t feel motivated. In these moments, we need to develop the strength and discipline to do the hard things anyway.
If we can learn to wake up every morning with the intention to take responsibility for our actions and, as a result, exercise discipline as we work towards our goals, we will find ourselves moving towards success that is lasting and fulfilling.
