Final Draft to Achieve Academic Success

Personal Responsibility Essay GEN/200 Month Date, Year Professor Week 5: Personal Responsibility Essay: Final Draft To achieve academic success, students must practice personal responsibility through effective time management and communication. Personal responsibility also can be referred to as Accountability that is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the quality or state of being accountable; an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions. ” http://www. merriam-webster. com/dictionary/accountability.

In my own words, being responsible is the same as being honest with oneself and possessing the honor and integrity to own up to all your decisions and accepting each consequence if one decides whether or not to follow through. Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted for saying; “In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. ”  http://www. goodreads. com/quotes/tag/personal-responsibility. I agree with Eleanor Roosevelt because I control my own destiny.

It is up to me to know the difference between right and wrong and make a wise decision. I know that any decisions I make will come with results. Results that I must maintain a focus mind on no matter what the consequences may be as well as understanding how it could affect the ones around me. A preliminary plan to practice personal responsibility in my education would be time management. I want to concentrate on this area because as a student and in education I need to be able to have a better regiment as far as time management goes.

Steinbrook (2006) stated: “The concept of personal responsibility in health care is that if we follow healthy lifestyles (exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking) and are good patients (keeping our appointments, heeding our physicians’ advice, and using a hospital emergency department only for emergencies), we will be rewarded by feeling better and spending less money. ” This article is relevant because it demonstrates how individual behavior incorporating time management with appointments, work outs, specific lifestyles and eating habits can lead to positive results.

To stay successful with deadlines and managing time I currently have implemented a to do list by my bed side each night, syllabus with different color highlighters as well as 2 different calendars which could be updated from any of my personal handheld devices. Personal responsibility is essential for clear communication. Most of us unfortunately live our lives in a place of insecurity. If we are not willing to take responsibility for our own insecurities then our communications are not true nor clear. In doing so, we are basically teaching other people to respond to us in an unclear way.

Mathias Dewatripont and Jean Tirole (2005) stated: “Finally, in the realm of supervisory decision making, a similar observation is that personal responsibility enhances the receiver’s cognitive work. ” This article is relevant because it demonstrates the different characteristics communication has pertaining to the sender and the receiver. Keeping in mind that this communication transfer is based on information gathered without the knowledge of knowing if it is true or not. Therefore, I need to focus on proactive listening and taking in all I hear without bias.

With taking responsibility for the quality of my thinking I can then put myself in a position of being open, honest and without fear to everyone around me. I know that in implementing this secondary plan I will have created positive new behaviors to my daily life routine to ensure success in my education. In conclusion, although life can sometimes present itself with many different obstacles making it difficult to maintain and achieve set deadlines, personal responsibility is vital in order to maintain college success for two main reasons.

First, it teaches you communication and being on time. But most importantly, it shows dedication and determination while being responsible for one’s own actions and behaviors. References: Steinbrook, R. (2006, August). Imposing Personal Responsibility for Health. The New England Journal of Medicine, 355(8), 753-6 doi:10. 1056/NEJMp068141 Dewattripont, M. , and Triole, J. (2005,December). Modes of Communication. The Journal of Political Economy, 113(6), 1217 – 1238. doi:10. 1086/497999