You are responsible

Your happiness is your responsibility. Nobody else’s but yours. You may think that if you work hard enough and diligently enough then everything else ought to just fall in place, as if in recognition of your efforts. For instance, if your goal is to start a successful business, maybe you believe in some external force – God/nature/people/probability/something else – that will do the remaining 20% of the effort once you’ve put in the initial 80% of the effort required to achieve your goal. “Do your best and hope for some luck” sums up this approach. Even if this is how you see things, there are times in life when you find yourself not “receiving” that remaining 20% even after you’ve done the initial 80%. This is because in reality there is no remaining 20% that is waiting to be given to you on a plate as a reward. If you want something to happen for sure then you have to make it happen, 100%.

You might disagree with that last statement. You might say “well, there was this one time when events just seemed to spontaneously occur in harmony, without me understanding how or why”. True, I’m sure many people (myself included) have had such moments. But does this mean that if things don’t work out the way you want then you can simply absolve yourself of any responsibility by blaming the turn of events? no. If you believe in the Law of Attraction then you will likely see yourself as responsible for the turn of events – both when they work in your favour and when they don’t, since you believe you alone are responsible for attracting those events into your life. This sense of responsibility would appear to be in line with what we are talking about here, but not quite. I am arguing that regardless of how or why events occur to you, you should not expect them to be in your favour. If co-incidences happen for you at the right time in the right place (i.e. synchronicity) then treat that them as bonuses, beyond what you were expecting. If you’re always prepared to do the 100% needed to achieve your objectives and not expecting “life” to take care of things for you then you will always win. When events turn in your favour you will go along with the flow and let things happen. When they don’t you will keep working at making things happen.

Not taking full responsibility for your success and failures is the easy way out. It’s easy to blame somebody or something else when things don’t work out the way you want. Initially, the idea that you alone are responsible for your happiness may seem daunting since there are no longer any excuses you can use. But on the flipside it is also extremely empowering because it also means that you have full control over how things turn out eventually. The fact that you don’t have control over all the events doesn’t matter so much since you are always in control of the next step to take. Taking 100% responsibility for your life requires the courage to act in spite of your fear and the determination to see yourself through all the obstacles. This is the hard bit. But over time this will get easier as you grow into doing it more and more.

The wider world

And what about your reponsibility in the wider world? In today’s connected and integrated world, it is difficult to survive without the support of a community. Take a local town, for instance. Business provides employment and income for people, as well as the money for public services, essential for supporting the less well-off members of society. You and everyone else need the opportunity to educate themselves and seek a better life through contribution to society rather than turning to a life of crime. Good schools and colleges ensure that you are employable and can compete for jobs in an ever-global marketplace. A strong law enforcement and justice system ensures that you won’t need to take matters into your own hands. A good local government will ensure that your views are heard and that public resources get allocated to different projects fairly and efficiently. A good rubbish collection scheme means you don’t have waste piling up on the streets.

All the different aspects of your community allow you to make a great life for yourself. The neglect of any aspect will eventually degrade the quality of life (even if in a small way) for everyone in the community. It is only through the collective action of every individual in a community that the community itself will thrive. This requires each individual within the community to be feel partly responsible for the well-being of the community. Thus you have partial responsibility for your community’s happiness. And the happier your community is, the happier you will be.

When talking about communities, we could be talking about your immediate and extended family, your village, town, city, country, continent or even the entire globe and beyond. In today’s world there are a number of issues which require our collective efforts to solve – climate change, geo-politicial conflicts, scarce resource allocation (e.g. water), dwindling oil reserves, etc. We can’t expect a small group of dedicated people to solve all of these issues for everyone. This is no different to closing our eyes to the issues and living our lives hoping that everything will just magically work out as want. Just as you are 100% responsible for your own life, we are 100% responsible for our collective existence on this planet, and thus our civilisation’s future. If there’s anything we know for sure it is that there is no silver bullet that will fix everything without us having to change the way we live. The solution to any particular problem differs depending on social demographics, world location and other factors. Many solutions (e.g. recycling) will require each of us to pitch in with our our own individual contributions. Indeed, for the global problems we face we may not have any other choice. Having to take partial responsibility for the world at large seems daunting. I mean, how much difference could an individual such as yourself possibly make on the world stage? And therein lies the opportunity. The opportunity to give it a go and see how much difference you can make. If you have the courage and the determination to go the 100% needed then your efforts will not be wasted. And what if you fail? it is better to have tried and failed than not tried. At the very least you will inspire other people to join you for the ride. And you will learn a lot, which is always a good thing.

So do your best, welcome luck, and keep doing your best. You are responsible. I am responsible. We are all responsible.

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