24 May Your Maturity Is Determined By Your Level of Accountability

Posted at 13:35h in Behavior, Culture, GI SAID IT, Human Nature, Mindset, Psychology, Society, Values by

Some say maturity is determined by age. Some say it’s how much experience you have. While these can be good indicators, I think maturity is determined by your ability to be accountable for your actions. A skill that needs to be taught from a young age, and one that many skipped class on to hotbox in the school parking lot. This is a big reason for a lot of our issues as a society, because when no one can own up to their part, nothing productive gets done.

Saying Sorry Is Not Accountability

Let’s get one thing straight. Saying sorry is not accountability. Not meaning to do something bad is not accountability. “I didn’t intend to do that” is not accountability. Accountability is taking ownership and responsibility for the result of your actions, no matter what. Anything less than this is an excuse born out of immaturity. While it’s a simple concept, I’ll be damned if people don’t struggle with this on an hourly basis.

Instead of accountability, you’ll see excuses, denial, playing the victim, and pretty much anything other than owning up to your sh-t. This is the mark of an immature person who is usually a problem. The kind of person in which it is never their fault and the blame always lies with someone else. Avoid these people. They are walking balls of emotional dysfunction and drama.

Spoiled Fruit

Underneath every person who cannot be accountable to save their life is an immature spoiled child. Someone who has yet to be required to accept the consequences of their actions and required to rectify them. Spoiling children has this effect and only leads to selfish adults. It is in this selfishness that a lack of accountability is born because it’s all about how they what they want or believe vs the impact they are having on others. This is a person who offers nothing to their collective tribe but misery.

One of the biggest culprits of such a rotten and immature development is the over use of positive reinforcement. Constant good feels and experiences never balanced out with the responsibility struggle of negative reinforcement that helps to develop mature and strong adults who understand boundaries. If you gave your child chocolate cake for every meal, what do you think that will do to their development? Nothing good, I know that.

Dumpster Fire

So what happens when no one has an ability to be accountable? Well a damn dumpster fire of a situation because nothing is getting done right. And why would it? There are no consequences to anyone’s actions. So while the house is on fire, everyone is partying having a great time because it’s all about their experience and how they feel; not about the results or consequences of reality. This kind of society is one where nothing seems to work correctly, people don’t care about doing their job, people are perpetually selfish and angry with each other, and things are in constant chaos. Sound familiar?

All societies are built on accountability, because without it, nothing will get done. The systems that allow you to have food, shelter, warmth, and clean water would all crumble as no one is caring to be responsible for their job. A society without accountability is one that is deep in the backslide of collapse, whether its people know it or not. People who are not accountable for their actions are generally not known for being aware of the big picture.

It Starts With The Community

How accountability was fostered in previous times was through your family and community. Within this collective of people sharing similar values, each person was held accountable by the rest of the community. For those who do not remember such a time, this will sound inconceivable and a major invasion of your autonomy. To that, I say grow up. That system was there to make sure that the group as a whole survived and did well, sh-t wasn’t all about you.

In such a community, your parents held you accountable. Your grand parents would check you if you stepped out of line. Your neighbors and teachers would either give you a talking to for acting out or have a word with your parents who would then swiftly deliver a crash course in accountability and consequences. It was a system that looked out for each other because it understood that without this building block of society, you would soon not have a community anymore. They understood that responsibility was a requirement of a functioning society.

Bring Back Accountability

I say bring back accountability as a standard. Bring back this crucial keystone of society to be taught in schools, in communities, and for the love of God, at home. And not the version where you say sorry and act like that fixed everything. I’m talking the mature version of accountability where you own what you did, say how you’re going to fix it, and fix it. Period. This is the only way to mend what you broke and keep the wheels of society running; and with it, all the conveniences that you enjoy on a daily basis. Accountability means putting others before your selfishness so that everyone can benefit. Let’s bring this mature action back before the backslide of collapse in our own society.

GI Griffin is a brutally honest cultural commentator and author, founder of The Tribe Academy, and host of the GI SAID IT show where bold perspective meets unfiltered truth. Known for his no-BS insights on human behavior and modern culture, GI challenges conventional thinking, exposes uncomfortable truths, and delivers bold insights for independent minds. View his show & essays here, or subscribe to his FREE newsletter here.

 



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