This month I’m offering some thoughts on responsibility. Please read along and see if you share my ideas!
Many forces influence what we think and how we behave.
These factors can be potent, but we’re responsible for our actions. We might be turned in a particular direction and told to walk, but we decide whether to take that first step. We also get to decide whether to keep going after we’ve traveled a given distance.
We’re responsible, to some degree at least, for the type of life we live.
We’re maybe not always the most responsible for certain things such as the arbitrary circumstances into which we’re born. These can determine the opportunities to which we have access, and the number of hurdles we’ll have to jump just to enjoy the same opportunities as some of our more (randomly) fortunate peers.
But we also decide whether and how to utilize those opportunities, how often we’ll attempt an especially ambitious leap, and to what degree we’ll invest in getting better using our efforts over time.
We can’t always adjust the ceilings and floors life gives us. But we do have a lot of say over where we spend most of our time, and where we ultimately end up.
Similarly, we’re responsible for the world we live in; with caveats.
The things we do throughout our lives, the effect we have on others, the ideas we believe and amplify (and those we muffle or condemn)—all of these variables, plus countless others, help shape our micro- and macro worlds. This includes our relationships, our communities, and the nations (and planet) we live in.
Whew………that’s a lot of responsibility.
And much of what we do, day in and day out, won’t feel like it’s part of some grand design, even though we could probably trace our decision to floss (or not) and vote (or not; or for someone else) and say something nice to a stranger (or not) down the chain to all sorts of potential impacts on ourselves and others.
My primary takeaway from thinking in these terms is that I have some degree of control over some elements of my life, and many of those elements will ripple outward and compound, whether I have any way of knowing about their secondary impacts, or not.
To me that means I can choose how to invest my time, how to fuel my body and mind, in which general direction I’d like my habits and rituals to take me, and in what sorts of spaces, businesses, relationships, systems, people, ideas, and organizations I’d like to invest (in all sorts of ways) so that more of them bloom and flourish.
This is a stance that’s simultaneously empowering and dis-empowering, as it encourages me to focus my time and attention (and other resources) appropriately. I can pull back from areas in which I have little or no leverage or influence so I can double-down on those where I do; those in which my words, actions, knowledge, and money might have more impact.
Acknowledging a lack of control over anything can be difficult, but I find that reminding myself of all these ripple effects (and that I can reinvest differently in the future, helps me avoid purposelessly fixating on things over which I have no power, which will almost always come at the expense of things over which I do.
As the year rolls along into its second month, I felt inspired to flesh out some ideas on this topic to guide myself throughout the coming months.
Do you share these ideas, agree or disagree with my take on responsibility?
Let me know. I think the topic is ripe for discussion!
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