Taking Baby Steps To Becoming A More Responsible Adult

As we get older, it’s tempting to blame our mounting problems on the external world.

“This apartment is too small!”

“My friends never call!”

“It’s the subway’s fault I’m late”

(Whether or not these are hypothetical situations or a typical Thursday evening, I’ll let you decide.)

It’s tempting because it’s easy. If everything is everyone else’s fault and nothing is my fault, then I don’t have to change.

If, though, I have a role to play in the things that are happening in my life, and I’m unhappy with those things, then… Well, I may have to change. And change requires action. And action requires, at the very least, a fresh cup of coffee.

Still, if we’re going to grow up (and we probably should), we have to take some baby steps to admitting our role in the happenings of our own lives.

3 Baby Steps To Taking On A Little Bit More Responsibility

1. Take Responsibility For Your Actions -  Becoming a more responsible adult starts with owning the things you say, do, and think. As Thrive Global succinctly says, “You create your life with your thoughts, feelings, words and actions.” If, speaking purely and completely hypothetically, one’s apartment is too small, ask if the responsibility falls more on the city and the landlords for pricing, or if it falls on us, for the jobs we’ve chosen, the part of the city we’d like to live in, or how we budget our money.
   
   
2. Don’t Blame Others - When you blame others, you become the victim. HackSpirit describes this type of blaming as giving up your power to change your life. As the victim, it’s not your responsibility to change anything. If, speaking purely and completely hypothetically, one’s friends aren’t calling, it’s worth asking our role. Have we been returning their calls? Have we been proposing plans?
   
   
3. Stop Making Excuses - Excuses are fairly easy to recognize. Like we see in Stunning Motivation’s list, they often start with “I can’t because…” When we make excuses, we excuse ourselves from being responsible. If, speaking purely and completely hypothetically, we’re going to arrive late because we left the apartment late, blaming the subway means we don’t have to reevaluate what time we actually leave our apartment.
   

Growing up isn’t all fun and games, of course, no matter how adults made the grown-ups table look when we were younger. 

But when you do it right, you get to live a life that’s diverse, challenging, and interesting (and you can earn these sweet coins, too!).