A public school teacher was discovered to have been having sex with his students over an eleven-year period. The encounters took place in the school auditorium, the press box, his home, and his car. He blamed it on the school administration, society in general, and the parents of the students. The list is long. Newspapers are filled with stories of people who blame their actions on society, other people, environmental issues, and coughed-up mental problems. The only thing that has more girth than our newspapers are the nation's courtrooms.

In case after case after case, people are blaming their actions on someone or something other than themselves. The lack of personal responsibility has become an epidemic.

Imagine for a moment that you take no responsibility for any action in your life. How does this affect your self-esteem? Basically, it erases your self-esteem. You cannot think well of yourself if you refuse to take responsibility for your actions.

Further, if you refuse to take responsibility for your mistakes, errors, and misjudgments, you cannot rightfully take responsibility for your triumphs, successes, and accomplishments. This further damages your self-esteem.

The law of cause and effect suggests that for every action, there is a reaction. This means that for everything you say, everything you do, and everything you think, a reaction or effect is caused. Ignoring this reality causes people to shirk their responsibilities because they do not believe that their actions really cause reactions.

Cause and effect can be very simple. If you eat rotten chicken, you get sick. If you jump into a deep lake with no one around and you can't swim, you drown. If you eat an entire box of donuts, three cups of coffee, and two cookies for breakfast, the effect may be sickness to your stomach, a sensation of being very full, a feeling of guilt, and — if you did it often enough — weight gain. These are effects of an action.

Therefore, because of the law of cause and effect, you must concede that your actions toward yourself and others will have an effect. If you do “a thing” there will be “a reaction.” If you accept this law of nature, then you can begin to see how irrational it is to deny responsibility for your actions.