Responsible?

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“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

More often these days, we hear echoes or screams about people shirking their responsibilities regardless of what that responsibility is. When one has a duty to fulfill or an assignment to complete, are we committed to seeing the job through or do we simply shrug our shoulders, walk away, and think the next person will certainly take care of it?

Upholding and committing to our accountability and dependability speaks a lot about our character and the conversation of our conduct. As a society, we can get farther if we simply do our part, not that of the next person or the person next to them, because there will definitely be a domino effect when we fall down on the job, whatever that job may be.

Our blatant negligence could make the person next to you fall, and the action will continue if someone does not try to prevent a further disaster. Are we as reliable as we could be or should be, not on everything, but the things within our level of care and responsibility? How can we do more to raise the bar of “excellence beyond expectation” to take care of and nurture something or someone so precious?

Honor Your Commitments

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Commitments. We make them, and we do our darndest to keep them, especially when they are for or to someone else. But what about our commitment to ourselves? We have dreams, aspirations, and work that we pour our heart and soul into, trying to make our actions become achievements. Yet, why do we all too often break our commitments to ourselves? Why do we think the commitment to ourselves can take a back seat to the promises we make to others? We inevitably make their dreams become a reality, and then we find ourselves lacking the energy to work on our personal goals. Thus, we end up lost is a self-defeating emotion that we need not bear.

Let’s say we submit our resume to a potential employer. We want to deliver the message that we are a team player, detail-oriented, goal-oriented, and all-around perfectionist. Yet, in the end, how much satisfaction do you get? We commit to our friends, children, spouses, parents, siblings, other relatives, and acquaintances, not realizing we are short-changing ourselves in the process.

Right now, some of us are finding ourselves twiddling our thumbs, dedicating ourselves to productivity, lack of sleep, and reaching those quarterly earnings and quotas for bosses without some well-deserved compensation. Then, we find ourselves feeling down, distracted, and depressed because we have missed many personal opportunities not having fulfilled our commitment to ourselves. It’s okay to commit to projects, not of our planning or undertaking but just remember, don’t forget to honor your commitments to yourself.