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The Plant Of Taking Responsibility
It has its thorns too, but it’s worth it
When I was a little girl, I used to avoid taking responsibility. You know… like the vase had been broken by itself and that illogical event just happened to happen next to me, something had been moved from its place and was never put back and I just was the last person that used it, but, hey… I didn’t do it, etc.
I remember a scene when my mother lowered her body and brought her eyes at the exact level as mine and said: “Look, I have observed that there are times when you have done something and you refuse it. We all make mistakes. Next time, just say It was me; I did that. It is as simple as that. OK?”. I was around 5–6 years old.
That was it. So simple.
From that moment, whenever I had done something, I found that the simplest thing in the world was to say “It was me; I did that”. Then I faced the consequences and I was trying to avoid the mistake the next time.
If it was something I had done because I had a new post at work and I hadn’t learned everything about it yet, I explained that I hadn’t learned that part yet and “I know now, so, the next time will be different”. Almost no one had a problem with that, because it was put within the context of my general activity; I wasn’t characterized by a part of my…
