What exactly is a Responsibility? A  responsibility is something you are expected to do. A responsibility might be a task you are expected to do. For example, your parents expect you to brush your teeth. Brushing your teeth is “a responsibility” and it is your responsibility to brush your teeth every day. We do not have to put on our Big Boy or Big Girl Pants to brush our teeth. For most of us it is just a habit and the variables are how many times a day we do it. The teeth we do not brush are the teeth we lose. i.e., not taking care of something results in loss. What is not taken care of deteriorates, loses value, and often is discarded.

Have you given me the award for stating the obvious? Seriously, life and lessons have a way of forcing us to take on responsibility we resent. We commit, thinking it will never happen and we will never have to perform. We promise to do this, that, or the other giving little thought to the consequences. Then,  the inevitable and unexpected happens; illness, injury, financial loss, an accident, a fire, unforeseen events that force us to take responsibility for someone or something. We are forced to face our fear and ultimately act. Action for which we feel unprepared. If you have children or Grandchildren, you can relate. We cannot go online and download the manual for what to do in every instance requiring our taking responsibility. In an emergency we step up to the plate with a bat in our hand hoping our intuition will work. We are taking a swing at the ball. Best case scenario: we hit a home run. All turns out well! Then there is the more likely, we hit a single, get on first base or a double and land on second base. Frequently, we strike out, fail, blow it and our lack of preparation or training leads to a less than happy ending. So much for the baseball analogies.

Responsibility sucks. It forces us to choose between want and need. I want to do this, but I need or have committed to do that, breeding resentment. I resent myself for having committed or worse, I resent the person to whom I have made the commitment. Then I get to experience my own “grit level”. Do I keep my word, grit my teeth, and do my best or do I start rationalizing, making excuses for my failure, and giving up? Choice and commitment to my word rear their ugly heads and I am forced to decide what direction I am going. “Responsibility Sucks” or does it? It is possible that in choosing I learn. I learn what I did not think I could do. I learn I can. I learn I can generate more power than I expected, surprising those around me and even myself. I find out what I am truly capable of, setting the bar higher than before. I experience greater self-respect, self-image, and growth. I learn and expand my previously set self limits. By choosing what I need to do over what I want to do, I grow, I create different priorities and my soul applauds the results. My soul set it all up for me before I was born anyway. My soul is not surprised in the least! My brain is the one with the issue. It always wants new, more, and better. It just did not like it when it got what it asked for. Therein lies the rub, Responsibility Sucks!