Response-Ability - Leadership

Leadership - Personal Development

Responsibility

Hmmm! What does it mean? Responsibility; the ability to respond, Response-Ability.

The ability to respond to what?

To an action may be?

To a word, sentence or statement?

To a person or persons

To a circumstance or circumstances may be?

Respond to a situations, environment?

How about the ability to respond to ourselves?

Respond to the things we do - our actions

Responding to how we feel – our attitudes

Responding to what we know – our philosophy

You can see where we are going with this? Not yet! Hmmm! Not yet right?

Readiness for all eventualities is the certificate graduation from Boys to Men and all blames is now on you. The buck stop with you

The Tortoise and the Hare

Okay! From grounds up.

We are either dealing with CHRONIC or ACUTE situations, circumstance or events that we are either prepared for or we are not – Chronic; Acute, right? I hope I am right here.

The man says, “it came up on me out of nowhere” that means acute, he didn’t anticipate the outcome and he had to respond according to instincts and reflexes. We cannot blame him for that. He still bears responsibility on how he reacts though, how it affects him afterwards. That is if he lives after that to tell about it and let the world know what happened to him. See now, all that falls on him. He still was not prepared

Now a man goes through a mountain and steps off of a cliff by mistake. He didn’t know it was a cliff, and he didn’t know the bottom was further down, now he is dead at the bottom. He cannot tell his experiences, now we have to make up his experiences and tell his story – sort of fill in the blanks – Acute I say. You see he was not prepared and he is still responsible for all that happened to him, and no one is going to be charged for what happened to him

Ignorance is NOT Bliss

Before a man stepped off of a cliff and die, maybe live to tell about it; it is still his responsibility to test the grounds in front of him, with a stick may be – a walking stick will do or even any unshaped branch. People do it all the time. I see less sighted people do that all the time at the metro stations, on the sidewalks, crossing the streets, stepping over potholes, and climbing the stairs.

The man knows how many huddles are lined up for him to jump over, he has been practicing all these while for this day and here is this day - Chronic. He lines up with the other contestants to run and go over these huddles, and at the sound of the whistle, he takes off, runs the race, jumps over the huddles and beats everyone to the finish line, and he takes the trophy. Hoisting in the air, and thanks his coaches, everyone that was a part of his preparedness and himself for doing what he was supposed. You see, that is how it is done.

Being Proactive is the Key

A farmer anticipates and response to hunger by making ready crops and preparing for the planting seasons. He plants his seeds in due seasons and awaits to harvest in the due season.

The ability to respond to anything is just like that – how prepared are you?

Don’t get me wrong, birds eats worm and the harvest could be eaten by night locusts. That is what it is, we can do little about that but, chances are higher that worm may escape and grow into adulthood and bear offspring and that the locust may not come, or that they may find other persons field and crop, and that they have been full before they get to your field. I don’t know all these things – I don’t know these things, I don’t know how they happen and some of them we cannot explain. It is what it is.

How prepared are?

To meet the challenges of life,

Accepting the challenges

Driving the roots deep

Becoming as strong and as possible.

Accepting everything that comes and making it into what you wish to make it.

Attempting your best

Trying you hardest, thinking well, reading well, living well, and struggling with it all.

That's called the challenge of being prepared. That's what makes life worthwhile, that's where the value is - the struggle for high ideals, to make something unique out of your life’s Acute and Chronic challenges.

How prepared are you? How ready and how equipped and should you be? Most of all, how willing are you to develop the ability to respond to the good, the bad and the ugly that are packaged as in -word, sentence or statement; situations, environment; and most importantly, yourself. Yes! You

Let me hear from you

OJI