One of the first things that we all learn early on is the importance of responsibility and why it is critical to our society. This need for responsibility should subsume every other need including personal likes and desires. But sadly, so many of us prefer to shelve responsibility on a high shelf with resulting consequences. For example, if you had a pet that you were in charge of feeding on a daily basis and then you headed out on a trip and forgot all about your pet, can you imagine how the rest of the story would play out?
One thing is for sure, you can bet your last dollar that no one would ever ask you again to house-sit any pet for them. The point is that we are hardwired to value and give importance to responsibility; moreover, we subconsciously gravitate towards responsible people, people who always deliver on their promises on time, and the sort that you can depend on to come to your aid when facing a crisis. What does this mean? That responsibility as a trait, is something that is attractive to us on a whole new level? Or maybe it is all about our personality?
Whether it is a personality trait or not, and incidentally it can be, responsibility can help you seem more attractive towards others. It partly has to do with our genetic memory where we often gravitated towards the stronger member of our clan so that he can better protect us. Times have changed and so has our formula for what makes a person ‘strong’. Today, we often see responsible people as strong and granted that most of this is based on common perceptions, but to a large extent, most of us view “responsibility” as a strong trait.
And it is this inherent belief that we may prosper better with responsible people that often drives us to seek their company out in the first place. But here’s the weird part; during our teen years, we often have this tendency to look down on ‘responsible’ people as part of the establishment and often prefer to associate ourselves with people who are far removed from the very notion of responsibility. The ague in the mix is none other than a case of hormonal imbalance which is more common during teenage years than at any other stage of your life.
But that aside, is it possible for us to all become responsible at some point or another? The fact remains that we all grow up, and in due course, become responsible for ourselves. It is this innate ability to adapt that helps us to become responsible and better adults. Granted there are a few adults who seem to be permanently stuck in the default teenage mode, but generally speaking, we all have to grow up and in the process, attain the responsibility. If you have children you may want to monitor their behavior and see if they exhibit any traces of responsibility early on which is a good sign indeed.
