Let's develop a new perspective on the gift of responsibility.  Let's give it a new definition so we can run towards it with open arms because of how wonderful it actually is.  Would you agree that many people see responsibility as a chore, a burden, something to avoid potentially? It's not. Response-ability, or the ability to respond the empowered meaning of this word responsibility. What are some reasons we might want to improve our abilities to respond?  
  1. We stay centered and in our power when we consciously choose how to respond, instead of unconsciously react.  When we are creating our life intentionally than this is a critical practice.
  2. Through our self-awareness practices we aspire to know ourselves which allows us to be in pursuit of a life that reflects our hopes and dreams. While these things are fluid and tend to be as easy to pin down as a butterfly, the practice is essential and we aim to go deeper and deeper.
  3. Feeling confident about our ability to respond brings us to the table of communication with confidence and also hopefully allows us to find peace in the process. We must learn to communicate our version of an experience non-violently (Read Marshall Rosenberg's book- Nonviolent Communication):      We need to approach one another with effective communication tools that focus on the things we can control and the things we can't.

 

Image borrowed from One in a Billion, click the link for another great article about the gift of identifying responsibility as the ability to respond.