Being Responsible Does NOT Suck!

I have a joke I have been making for years. A saying I’m sure everyone can relate to:

“Being responsible sucks!”

We have all been there. We see something we want to buy, but can’t afford to purchase if we want to eat. Or there is something we want to do, but can’t work it into our schedule around stuff we must do. It happens all the time. As an adult I run into these situations regularly, and make the joke all the time. Its my way of acknowledging my frustration, and reminding myself that some things in life have priority.

But the truth of the situation is exactly the opposite of my joke:

“Being Responsible makes life better.”

On the surface doing whatever we want, or buying whatever we want sounds like a great time, but life doesn’t work that way. Setting aside our responsibilities makes life great in the short term, often the VERY short term, but our responsibilities will ALWAYS catch up with us.

Neglecting our health in the short term, will have long term consequences. Most of which we will never recover from.

Ignoring our financial responsibilities can get us some nice shiny toys, but for the vast majority of us poor spending habits are not sustainable.

An often overlooked perk of being responsible is the psychological impact. Being irresponsible is something we often know is wrong even as we are doing it. Many times when we are feeling sad or depressed we will ignore our responsibilities and do something we love, something fun or distracting, or perhaps we will do nothing at all.

Rest is a critical part of breaking out of depression, but too mush rest eventually becomes irresponsibility. Subconsciously we know we shouldn’t being doing the irresponsible thing, and we cause ourselves a great deal of stress that we could have avoided. Stress can have a cascading effect that can impact every part of our life. Eventually we need to stop resting and take an active roll in making our lives better.

On the flip side, being responsible requires a level of discipline that can ALSO carry over into every aspect of our lives. We create in ourselves an inner strength that can see us through any challenge we face in life.

In my life being responsible is often the butt of a joke, but the truth is being responsible makes my life far easier.