Individual personal responsibility: essay resources and frameworks

Personal Responsibility

Introduction-What is Personal Responsibility?

Personal responsibility, by definition, is all about how an individual takes up accountability for his/her actions and accepts the burdens and consequences that come along with them and agrees the fact that his/her actions leave an impact on everyone around him/her. Personal responsibility does not only help an individual learn to be perceptive of his/her responsibilities and but also focuses on his/her ability to deal with these responsibilities systematically and acceptably. In short, personal responsibility is when an individual analyzes the societal standards set around them, the importance of those standards set and the strenuous efforts an individual puts in to live up to the standards set. If, however, an individual fails to achieve the standards and meet/exceed the expectations put forth, personal responsibility would be taking blame on oneself and accepting one's mistakes rather than blaming outside conditions, circumstances, people or society. Three most important areas which are essentially subject to personal responsibility, and which will be discussed further are an individual's personal responsibility in education (Haskins, 2009).

Personal Responsibility and its important Aspects

Personal responsibility is one of the most important ethical practice that has an application in almost every phase of an individual's life. For an individual to grow in every aspect of his/her life, he/she must be responsible enough to take responsibility for his/her own actions. It is all about taking one's life's charge and the circumstances that prevail with the help of well-directed thoughts, plans and actions. Personal responsibility helps an individual become independent and helps one learn to deal with every matter of one's life without any external help. It is a wise path which makes use of research, experience, imagination and analysis to produce best possible and practicable theories in order to achieve grand results (Zens, 2009).

The practice has a complete process that it follows. Personal responsibility begins by identifying a problem or a situation and evaluating whether it pertains to oneself, to someone else or to the society on the whole. Some problems could be taken care of by an individual realizing his/her personal responsibility towards it, while others have to be dealt with in cooperation or agreement with other people or organizations. The next step is reevaluating one's actions and the results that they have led to. Constant reevaluation of one's behavior and actions is essential since every member of the society has personal responsibility towards the society on the whole. After monitoring one's behavior, the next step is to rectify one's behavior and accept one's mistakes that might have led to the problem in hand. For a person to do this, a great amount of courage and self-confidence is required. This step is followed by a proper plan of strategies that an individual could implement to rectify his/her mistakes. This entire process would thus help an individual adopt personal responsibility and solve underlying problems caused due to its absence (Rick, n.d.).

Personal responsibility is an essential element for success in the field of education. For students, succeeding in their academic life is all about personal responsibility. Personal responsibility here applies in the students own approach towards their study patterns, they must be responsible enough to work hard to achieve high grades and keep a learning approach all the time in order to learn from what they study and then apply it in practical world after their graduation or when they begin to work. This would include students preparing for colleges by taking courses, students working hard well before deadline on projects and exam preparation, students enrolling in training courses to train themselves before applying for job and students prioritizing and planning their studies along with job to avoid last minute preparations and stress (Haskins, 2009).

An example of personal responsibility is the 35% non-traditional students of Arkansas State University, who work and study simultaneously and often achieve the best grades in the University. The sole reason of this success is prioritizing, planning, time management and motivation to follow the planning for studies which in a nutshell is personal responsibility (Springston, 2010).

Student Success Strategies Plan

There are various strategies that could help students achieve higher grades and excel in their academic life. The first strategy that could prove to be useful is establishing specific, realistic and measurable goals. Many would argue that goal setting is one step which students achieve successfully but they never follow them. The solution for this is that the students must write down the goals set on stick notes and pasted them at places which they frequently pass through so that they remember what they have to achieve. Continuously reevaluate the goals and modifying them according to circumstances if required.

Time management is another strategy that would help students achieve their academic goals. They could make balanced timetables which include study time as well as recreational time and adhere to it. They must study every lecture after class to avoid marathon studies. This will help them in exam preparation. Lastly, attending classes regularly and taking notes, coming prepared for every class would also help a lot. Notes taken must be systematic for their own understanding (McGill, n.d.).

A student in order to implement all these strategies must follow a plan. The first step that could be taken to incorporate all the effective strategies mentioned above is developing a mission statement. The mission statement would specify the student's agenda for a semester / year. This will help them decide ahead of time and thus prioritize their actions. The second step must be selecting the goals. These will be benchmarks that would specify what students need to achieve to meet their mission, thus helping them implement goal establishment strategy. The third step would be planning strategies to achieve their goals, which have been mentioned above (time management strategy, goal reevaluation, regular class attendance etc.).

The fourth step would be to create objectives, which will be short-term and would help students in implementing strategies mentioned above. These will be short-term and small like buying a planner, making timetable, taking notes in class etc. The last step would be to evaluate the progress. This could be done by examining the grades that students are getting in their examinations and tests. If grades are improving, it means the plan had been successful. Regular evaluation is necessary alongside the implementation of strategies to make sure that if goals are not being achieved half way through the year, the plan would need to be revised (Fleming, 2012).