"I am 100% accountable for EVERYTHING that happens to me! Accountability has nothing to do with blame or fault and everything to do with choices and how I react to something!" I may not be able to control what people say or do to me, but I CAN control how I respond to them. I may not be able to control my trials in life, but I CAN control how I take them on. It is my responsibility to keep my own power. If I get angry at another driver, they have my power! And don't even know it and don't even care! I can let an insult wreck my day or I CAN shrug it off, love ME, and still have a wonderful day! Accountability is a powerful thing! Don't I owe this to myself?

Just some food for thought. Does anyone NOT agree? Is there anything you can think of that I am not accountable for?

NO. I agree with this 100%

I agree with you, mostly. I would say that I am accountable for 99% of what happens to me. For example, *I* am not at ALL accountable, in my opinion, of being unable to have a baby, and trying for three years to get pregnant. Yes, I can control how I respond to it, which is, truthfully, not very well, right now. But how am I accountable for the fact that I can't get pregnant?

If I get hit by a car that is going out of control, yet I am a defensive driver, who is doing everything right, how am *I* held accountable? Meaning, if I had chosen a different route to drive, I wouldn't have been hit?

Just looking for further clarification... I would LOVE to be able to say that I agree with you 100%, but I need more info... ;-)

Remember accountability had NOTHING! to to with fault or blame! I can not control whether or not I get hit by a car, but if it leaves me paralized I can blaim that driver and live a victim for the rest of my life, or I can be accountable for MY actions and choose to forgiveness and live life to its fullest with the disabilites I were given. If I choose to remain a victim, the person who hit me has my power, he has his own demons to live with, he doesn't want it and probably doesn't know he has it.
This question was asked at a retreat I went to. We were told to go home for the nite (3 day retreat) and make a list of things that we were not accountable for, most of us had the same things you mentioned on our list, like how am I accountable for I get raped- it wasn't my fault. Things happen to us that we have no control over, but we do have control over how we respond to them, and that makes us SO powerful!!!

Have any of you read anything by Viktor E. Frankl? He is the epitome of this type of thinking. Here is a website about his life - http://www.empirezine.com/spotlight/frankl/frankl1.htm

"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
Viktor E. Frankl

I LOVE THAT QUOTE! I have never heard of him but I'll go check out his site. Thank you

Well, I can be accountable for my REACTION to things, then, but not for some of the things, themselves....

Right? Or am I still not getting it?

I am not accountable for being infertile, I am accountable for my REACTION to it...
Sorry to keep at this, but this is touchy for me...

Exactly Jessica! Accountability is ALL about reaction, and nothing to do with fault or blame. It was a touchy spot for me, too. Kinda pissed me off when I was told I was 100% accountable. I'm sorry if I offended you, I didn't mean to.

No offense taken, your first post just said that "I am accountable for the things that happen to me." I disagree with that, but agree with "I am accountable for the REACTION I have to the things that happen to me." I take FULL responsibility for that. :-)
Thanks for being patient with me.