Your actions, your life
Accountability is what keeps peope on the straight and narrow. I can’t help but roll my eyes every time I hear a student give one excuse or another why they couldn’t do “something.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m even guilty of this and I can’t think of a single person who is not guilty of trying to pass the buck.
“I couldn’t do my homework this weekend because ____________ happened.”
“My reputation is tarnished because someone else said _______ about me.”
“I can’t go to your event because I’m already doing ___________.”
Everyone is capable of making the right decision. While it is a learned behavior, we do live in a society that pronouces the differences between right and wrong everywhere, from the classroom to the television.
If you screw up, you have to live with it. I can honestly say that I have made some decisions that I later regretted, and decisions from which my actions rendered grave consequences for me. But I work everyday to redeem myself in my own eyes.
The semester is quickly coming to a close, and so is my journey at Saddleback. I’ve come to a huge realization in my time here, and I think everyone can benefit from it: nobody can do it for you. Nobody can take it away from you. What you do is your own decision and yours alone. You can try to say that you made a decision based on something or someone else, but at the end of the day the only person who has to live with your actions is you.
Be accountable to yourself, it’s the most respectful thing you can do for yourself. Think before you speak, think before you act. Realize that every decision you make will impact you in the future, no matter how small or insignificant the action may seem. Blowing off your studies to go to a party may seem like fun now, but pulling an all-nighter or suffering on a test may be your consequence.
Every person owes themselves the chance to succeed. Whether or not you think that you have a future or a success, we are all on this planet and we are all living this moment. What you do in the next moment is going to transcend the moment and will live on through your future.
Don’t put yourself in harms way if you can help it, and don’t expect people to fight your battles for you. If you make your bed, you will inevitably have to lie in it too, and sometimes that is a most uncomfortable thought. I can’t tell you how many times I thought to myself after the fact, “man I wish I had done ________ instead.” Maybe it just took some growing up, but I finally realized that the priorities I set for myself are going to translate in my future.
You can’t change the past, but you can help shape your future by making good choices today.