Alex Toomer
Personal Responsibility
October 9, 2018
In my opinion, personal responsibility is something we choose to act. It’s to do a personal decision we choose to succeed. To succeed not only in everyday life but in military success, it takes discipline, good time management skills, and is responsible for all successes and failures. It takes the drive to make things happen, leading to success. Our own decisions and actions will lead to level of success we achieve.
Discipline is a need, to be successful in everyday life such as in the Army we are required to pass a PT test and conduct physical training on our if we can’t go to PT in the morning. You must discipline yourself to do physical training, so you can pass the mandatory test every six months or less sometimes. If you don’t do physical training on your own, then you could lead to a PT failure meaning you didn’t meet the minimum requirements for the test. After you fail a PT test the first time you will be counseled and given a plan of action such as remedial PT after work. Then, given a retake a month from the date that you failed the test. A month later, you fail your second PT test leading you to many more harsh consequences, some of these consequences is a general discharge, possible article 15, and after you get out having a general discharge can still disqualify you from law enforcement agencies depending on why you were discharged. Not only does failing a PT test affect you but affects your unit and the NCOs in control of you saying that they weren’t making you do PT causing you to fail, however it’s the persons responsibility to conduct physical training on their own. These responsibilities for PT are all linked to the start as if you were responsible and disciplined, none of that would ever happen. As for college discipline is the ability to adhere to guidelines or rules to complete our education, it is essential that we develop good discipline. In this regard, there is a relationship between personal responsibility and collegiate success. For a student to be successful, it is necessity that he embraces discipline and responsibility. A student that never completes an assignment is not exercising discipline and the likelihood of their success is slim, but a student that consistently fulfills their academic obligations is on the path to success. Although this is a brief analogy, I believe the point is well understood, that success is determined through disciplining yourself to write that paper, make a powerpoint, read those chapters, study those words, research your questions, etc. Discipline determines a lot of things that can happen in your life and if you are not disciplined then who know where you will be with your life. “The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.” (Jocko Willink) “Michael Pritchard lost his life to a British sniper on December 20th, 2009 when being mistook for Taliban. This incident was fighting British orthodox against Taliban guerrilla, was focused on a stretch of Route 611, which links Sangin town to the rest of the province. Control of the 611 was strategically important for both sides, and it was on the seventh day of an intense battle involving 350-400 British troops that Lance Corporal Michael Pritchard lost his life. He was killed not by the insurgents, who had planted roadside bombs wherever – 45 were found on the 611 in that brief period- but by a bullet fired by a British sniper. No single mistake led to his death, but a catalogue of missed opportunities, and a lack of basic equipment such as radios, created an extra layer of confusion on top of the usual fog of war in which Pritchard’s commanding officer, Major Richard Streatfeild, was trying to establish some order.”
Time management is important for success in the army, at a university, and overall in daily life. Time management in the army could lead to you being successful in the army because if you are in the right uniform and at the right plan then you will be successful in the army. Planning your time allows you to spread your work over a session, avoiding, too much work at once, and cope with study stress. Many deadlines for university work occur at the same time, and unless you plan, you’ll find it impossible to manage. To meet the demands of study you need to spread your workload over a session. Work out what needs to be done and when. Work out how to use your available time as efficiently as possible. The first step to good time management is to prioritize your tasks. In other words, deciding which task is most important and should be completed first. For example, in a choice between reading for an essay due in four weeks or preparing a seminar presentation in two weeks, choose to prepare the presentation. To prioritize successfully you must develop weekly and long-term time management plans. Many students find long, medium and short-term planning useful for organizing their study as effectively as possible. Planning saves time worry and energy. A monthly planner you can place on your wall or by your desk allows you to plan your work over an entire session and helps to remind you about deadlines and upcoming commitments. “Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.” (Charles Richards) “Two territorial army soldiers have died while training in the Brecon Beacons on the hottest day of the year. As temperatures reached 30C (86F) on Saturday, a group of soldiers was on exercise in the unforgiving terrain of the Brecon Beacons. The mountains are often used for military training, but on this occasion two soldiers died. A third serviceman remains in a serious condition in hospital. It is understood that the three were taking part in a selection process for the Territorial SAS, although this has not been confirmed by the Ministry of Defense (MoD). Essentially soldiers prove their physical aptitude by carrying large amounts of equipment up and down mountains for three weeks, says former British Army Col Licnold Jopp MC, who has taken part in the training himself.” “One of the two soldiers who died during selection training has been named by the Ministry of Defense as Lance Corporal Craig Roberts. The 24-year-old from Penryn Bay, Conwy, and his fellow reservist died on the hottest day of the year in Wales. A third soldier is seriously ill after the incident thought to have involved six soldiers collapsing.”
“Success” is defined as achievement of something unintended or desired such as attaining wealth, fame, or prosperity. "Failure" is defined as a minor fault or defect. We all know someone who could fit into either of these categories. You may even know someone who could fit into the categories of both failure and success. There may be several aspects of a person's life that shape our view of them to be a success. One mishap in their life may reflect as a failure. I don't often judge people in my life to be one way or another, success or failure, although I will give a few examples to show my definition of the two. One example that I could give for someone successful in the army would be committing yourself to the unit and the army lifestyle. Not only do you have to sign a contract and fulfill that contract in the army, but you must go through rigorous training physical and emotional, this takes motivation to complete. Completing the training is a great success and makes you feel accomplished because not everyone can do that training and not everyone can be a soldier. However, if it is your goal to become a soldier then push yourself everyday and motivate yourself to go through with it taking it week-by-week pushing through the training. There are unlimited possibilities to forms of success. Another example that many people would agree with for a successful person would be a doctor. Many people dream to be doctors because of the feeling you get saving lives and the huge paycheck. They work hard for their success to be doctors by going to college and med school. Working hard is the key to success in life and it’s a responsibility you must take on. Failure, on the other hand, is a little harder to justify. One person in my life that I could use as an example of a failure would by my sister’s ex-fiancé. He can’t keep a job because he constantly wanted to be out drinking, partying, doing drugs, ignoring his kids, not changing their diapers, and overall that is something that is a failure especially ignoring your wife all the time. There needs to be a line drawn between work and play, and for some people they don’t know where to draw that line. Many times, this problem results in failure. “Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.” (Colin Powell) “Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, and Sgt. La David T. Johnson died after their convoy was ambushed by a large force of ISIS fighters, which “began to envelop” the U.S. and Nigerian troops near the village of Tongo, according to a new unclassified Pentagon summary of the investigation into the Oct. 4, 2017, ambush in Niger. When the team leader ordered the combined force of U.S. and Nigerian troops to withdraw, the convoy lost sight of a vehicle with Wright, Black and Jeremiah Johnson, which stayed at the ambush site, the summary says: Staff Sgt. White entered the third vehicle and began driving it slowly to the south while Staff Sgt. J. Johnson and Staff Sgt. Black moved next to the vehicle using it as cover while providing suppressive fire. During the movement, enemy small arms fire hit Staff Sgt. Black killing him instantly. Staff Sgt. Wright halted the vehicle and dismounted. Despite increasing enemy fire, both Staff Sgt. White and Staff Sgt. J. Johnson remained with Staff Sgt. Black and attempted to provide cover and assess his wounds. Overrun by enemy fighters, Staff Sgt. Wright and Staff Sgt. J. Johnson were forced to evade on foot. At approximately 85 meters from the vehicle, enemy small arms fire hit Staff Sgt. J. Johnson, severely wounding him. Staff Sgt. Wright stopped and returned to Staff Sgt. J. Johnson and continued to engage the enemy until each was shot and killed by small arms fire. Staff Sgt. Black, Staff Sgt. Wright and Staff Sgt. J. Johnson were never captured alive by the enemy. As enemy fighters advanced through the ambush site, they fired several additional bursts into the bodies of the three soldiers. The rest of the team stopped about 700 meters away and then sent U.S. and Nigerian troops to find the missing soldiers, but the convoy was forced to move again to avoid being overrun, the summary says. Heavy enemy fire prevented La David Johnson and Nigerian troops from getting inside their vehicle as the rest of the team drove away.”
Personal responsibility is important in everyday life because if you don’t have personal responsibility then you won’t get very far in life. Being disciplined is the most important to any responsibility and means you can overcome anything in your life if you put the effort to do whatever you have to do at that time. Moving on to time management, if you don’t have time management then you can’t do excellent on a task without enough time and you don’t want to be frustrated thinking about the task because you realized you wasted too much time not doing the task, instead of just eventually doing the task. Without time management you aren’t showing discipline or strength. Accepting success and failure is something everyone in life should know how to do which personally I feel many people in life don’t accept failure and are arrogant. If you can’t accept that you did something wrong, then how will you ever get better at that if you think you did it right. Without all three of these you can’t be successful because they all work together as one without discipline you won’t know how to manage your time because you will not do the task given until the end and without accepting success and failure you will never get better at what you were doing when you did that task. This is what personal responsibility is to me.
Holt, Gerry (2013, July 15). Soldier Deaths: How dangerous is military training allowed to be? https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23311575
Webster, Nathan (2013, July 15). Brecon Beacons soldier deaths: Craig Roberts named as victim https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-23311651
Schogol, Jeff (2018, May 10). 4 Soldiers Fought To Their Deaths In Niger Ambush, Pentagon Now Says https://taskandpurpose.com/4-soldiers-fought-to-their-deaths-the-niger-ambush/
Hopkins, Nick (2014, March 14). An unnecessary death: commander speaks out over ‘blue on blue’ shooting https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/14/british-soldier-blue-on-blue-killing