Personal Accountability

\While there are many factors that will contribute to your college education, holding yourself personally responsible is the most important. It is your name on the assignments, you make the decisions on how to spend time, and it is your work ethic that will determine the level of success you achieve. We are past the days where our hands are held, and have entered the days of standing on our own two feet.

Ron Haskins describes personal responsibility as "the willingness to both accept the importance of standards that society establishes for individual behavior and to make strenuous personal efforts to live by those standards". Standards are set by society for every aspect of our lives, punctuality at work, obeying laws, and even general conduct in public. It is the job of the individual to both recognize the standard, and then to rise and meet those standards. That is only part of the defination of personal responsibility. It is not enough to meet standards, but to take respnosibilty for failures as well (HASKINS). An individual must take control of the available time and opportunities that they are given on a daily basis, while at the same time accepting the consequences of your decisions. Everyone is their own Time Manager, Scheduler, and Boss; which is to say how you spend your time is entirely up to you. Managing your time wisely so that you have the opportunity to complete tasks at work, spend time with family, hang-out with friends, or just read a book quietly is your responsibility. It is your task to rise to, or blow-off, but be forewarned when time is up it is gone. It is important to use the time you have efficiently and responsibly, because like many other resources in the world, time is limited in its nature. You can't save time, buy-it, speed it up or slow it down, but you can spend it and manage it. Choosing between extra-curricular activities, study time, family time, or alone time is your job alone. Time is a valuable and limited resource that is yours to use effectively or to waste(Chapter 2). Because time is yours to spend, accepting the consequences of your decisions also fall upon your shoulders. With every decision you make in time management, there is always consequences that you need to accept. Spending the morning watching television could be time spent studying for an exam. Not taking the time to prepare for your work day, could leave you scrambling at the last minute and late for your job.

Personal responsibility directly correlates with success in school in many different ways. The standard for success is always laid out in the form of a syllabus or description of course work. Once you make the decision to achieve a higher education, the path you take is entirely up to you. It is up to you how much time you give to allow yourself the best possible chance to succeed in academics. How often you raise your hand to ask questions