Personal Responsibilty

Personal Responsibility

Josh Young

GEN/200

October 24, 2011

Nichelle Ancrum,M.Ed.

Personal Responsibility

When an individual decides to further his or her education many decisions and sacrifices have to be made. An individual must plan to sacrifice time with his or her family, personal time for hobbies and friends, and need to realize there will be financial sacrifices as well. By simply making the choice to further their education, an individual exhibits a level of personal responsibility. Although many individuals make excuses, by taking personal responsibility an individual can achieve academic success, and be responsible for his or her actions.

When starting out it is important to take the personal responsibility to set an academic goal for oneself. This goal should be clear and specific to what the student wants to achieve overall in his or her academic studies. “Of students who enroll in 4-year universities, 25% never finish. Precipitating causes of early departure include poor academic progress and lack of clear goals and motivation” (Morisano, Hirsh, Peterson, Pihl, Shore, 2010, p. 255). Start by prioritizing a list of daily, weekly, and monthly short term goals that reflect the long-term academic goal. The daily goals are goals or task that can be completed each day. An example of a daily goal is setting aside time each day to study or work on and complete assignments. The weekly goals could be as easy as attending class on time and completing the weekly assignments. Depending on the educational institute and the length of its semesters the monthly goal could be completing a class or maintaining a high grade point average for the month of that semester. “Individuals with clear goals appear more able to direct attention and effort toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities, demonstrating a greater capacity for self-regulation” (Morisano, Hirsh, Peterson, Pihl, Shore, 2010, p. 256). A sense of personal...