On Responsibility

Responsibility is weight.  Carrying the brunt of your needs, as well as the needs of others, on your shoulders.  Atlas style (and when being god is slightly less of a party than expected).  

So goes conventional wisdom.  And I’ve continued to hold that belief most likely out of resentment for having to ‘grow up’ and not live ‘carefree.’

And yet, let’s look at this again--

Responsible.  Able to respond.

Responsibility.  Ability to respond.  

I’m starting to see that being responsible can be as effortless as breath.  You receive input from the world, and you react fluidly in response (being proactive isn’t a part of my hardware yet, so we’ll skip that for now #carefree4lyfe).

Think about it--what enables you to respond, despite the level of adversity of the circumstance?   

A strong belief system.  A resolute way of seeing and being in the world that doesn’t have to flip flop about which is better, what is right, what do other people want, what do I really want (aka hello my life).  Just do it.  (Royalties from Nike pending.)  You know what course of action to take.  

The irony is that when you really believe in something, then there’s a certain amount of faith involved.  At some point, you just live it.  You stop questioning it.  You choose to stop agonizing over decisions, to stop carrying the world on your shoulders and moaning about it, and have something guide your decision making process--the internal compass to your north star.  Breath comes in, goes out.  It’s natural.  

In order to become fully responsible, you have to trust in something, you have to surrender your wanting to control everything in life to a certain belief system.  

The question is--do you accept the worldview that you grew up with, and the belief systems that you developed unconsciously; or you get under the hood and tinker a bit; or you tear the whole damn engine out and get to building a custom motor that runs on vegetable oil or quantum something.  You choose.  

Easy said.  The confusing part about being a millennial is having option overload.  Whereas the guiding principles of religion might have made responsibility a tad easier, most people these days are piecing together a variety of belief systems that either suit their level of comfort in life (piece of cake), or that really aligns with their life’s purpose (less piece of cake, more piece of bitter greens).  

I’m terribly indecisive because there’s too much of the former.  Too much pleaser, too much fear about hurting other people’s feelings (which, by the way, always leads to exactly what I’m trying to avoid--hurt feelings, which is like biting into a double shame hamburger with rocks hiding in it).  White noise affects the decision making process.  

It’s like being ADD when you’re parallel parking a trailer in NYC rush hour (man, really all over the car metaphors).  The blood is in the water and everyone wants a piece of you and by trying to make them happy by waving at them and assuring them you’re almost finished, you get distracted from actually doing what will help everyone involved most: move.  

Focus and being decisive are going to be become the most important skills that we can cultivate in the future.  

Religion made that easy.  Because clarity equals power.  We don’t really do religion like we used to though.    

So, what’s your religion?