Taking Responsibility for Your Actions

In spite of all our modern conveniences or maybe because of all our modern conveniences, we still make mistakes such as missing a dentist appointment because we thought it was the next day or turning up late for a birthday party because we thought it started later than it did.

One sign of maturity – whether in a high school student, college student, or young adult – is the ability to say: “I made a mistake and I’m sorry.” In other words, not try to weasel out of responsibility by saying such things as: “Your receptionist must have told me the wrong day” or “I couldn’t understand the voice message you left.”

If you messed up, admit it, apologize and move on. And, of course, try not to repeat the same mistake a second time. But don’t get a reputation as someone who always tries to blame others for what he/she did.

For those of you who will be in synagogue for the Kol Nidre service of Yom Kippur, you will publicly be taking responsibility for your actions of the past year. And you can use this opportunity to consider how you will do things differently in the coming year.

And for those of you who won’t be participating in this public act of taking responsibility, you can still think about taking responsibility for your actions instead of trying to push off the “blame” onto someone else.

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