A fundamental tenet of personal change involves owning up to moral mistakes. By taking personal accountability for a moral failure an individual is able to admit that he or she is lacking in a certain area and such an admission lays the foundation for future personal growth.

The challenges involved in taking personal responsibility are many. Pride works against the necessity of admitting fault and working to become a better person, but the effort is both necessary and ultimately worthwhile. When an individual comes to the place of being able to take personal responsibility for a moral failure that person is finally ready to put the failure in the past and move forward as a healthier and stronger person. What is involved in admitting moral failure and what are the positive results that come about as a person is able to do so?

The underlying foundation for admitting moral failure is the acceptance of a moral standard that has been breached. A moral code is an organized system of right and wrong that has its source in a greater authority. Such an authority may be a God or gods or it may be a temporal authority such as a government or cultural group.

The important factor for the individual is acceptance of the authority and the belief that the authority has established the moral code for the good of the individual who is following it. Until a person has come to the place where he or she can accept such an authority, the individual will act merely for his or her own benefit without concern for the moral consequences involved.

A person who is unwilling or unable to listen to the voice of conscience is unable to act within the boundaries of social society since he or she does not respond to the social controls that allow people to exist and work together successfully.

The admission of moral failure ultimately involves acting in response to the voice of conscience. Conscience is an inner voice which consists of a system of moral principles that determine whether or not a particular action is right or wrong. A person who is both able and willing to hear this inner voice and to allow it to direct behavior is thus able to act in a manner that keeps him or her within the proper boundaries of social behavior.

It is conscience which keeps an individual from making instinctive judgments that are for personal benefit but which will inevitably cause harm either to the individual involved or to others. Such an inner voice enables a person to act properly even when no one else is present to ensure accountability. A person who listens to conscience and accepts its direction trusts that the authority over him or her is functioning even when there is no obvious presence of that authority at a particular time.

Doing the right thing is always proper regardless of the situation involved and any violation of the moral code produces feelings of guilt over performing a wrong action.

The feeling produced when a person becomes aware of a moral wrong is known as guilt. Guilt is the acceptance of responsibility for an action that is in violation of a moral code of behavior. Taking responsibility for an action involves both a mature response to the world and a willingness to be humble within it structure.

Personal pride is most impacted as an individual admits a moral fault and particularly that a person has committed a wrong act. A natural tendency is to defend an action or to argue that the circumstances at the time required acting against the requirements of the moral code. As a person is willing to take responsibility for a wrong action without such qualifications, that individual grows stronger and more mature and becomes the kind of person who is able to more easily act properly in the future.

Guilt points to an area of personal weakness and encourages a person to grow in that particular area to become a better person. Rightly responding to guilt does not involve despondency, but humble honesty and commitment to do better in the future. 

Owning up to a moral failure involves both a commitment to make appropriate amends for the consequences of a person’s actions and a determination to become a better person in the future. Part of owning up to a moral failure is making a direct connection between a person’s actions and the impact that such actions have had in the lives of others.

Stepping into the lives of those who have been harmed by wrong behavior is part of the process by which an individual becomes more mature and is better able to choose to make better responses to the same circumstances in the future. The acknowledgment of pain in another person, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional, helps a person to come to grips with the rightness of the moral code and to the negative impact of violating it.

The deeper that the connection is between wrong actions and the harmful consequences of those actions, the less likely an individual will be to act in a morally wrong way in the future. Owning up to moral failure is to honestly accept that a person’s actions have caused real harm and involves a willingness to make the necessary reparations, as possible, to bring healing, wholeness, and restoration.

Acceptance of moral failure is not limited to the past, but always looks to the future. Such an admission is not limited to making right what has been wrong, but on becoming the kind of person who will not act in such a way in the future. This involves looking inward to understand why a person acted in such a way and seeking to understand what will be involved in the future to prevent acting in the same way again.

Without a commitment to change, a person will continue to act in the same manner when the same circumstances arise. Refusal to make the appropriate changes is a necessary part of owning up to moral failure. If a person only focuses on fixing the damage of wrong actions then that person will be doomed to a life of continually acting wrongly and suffering the consequences of doing so.

In order to pull out of such a negative cycle an individual must have the courage to accept the hard truth of areas of personality that are warped and that must change in order to act according to a moral code. The more that a person is committed to the rightness of such a code, the more willing that person will be to make the necessary changes to become a person who can honor such a code and live within its proper and right limits.

Moral failures are actions that fall short of an accepted moral code of behavior. The act of owning up to such a failure is a process of responding to the voice of conscience and allowing the feelings of guilt to help a person to make proper amends for wrong actions and to become a better person in the future.

By responding maturely to the falling short of the moral code, a person is actually affirming this code and making a commitment to be the kind of person who can better act within its right and proper limits. The act of humbly owning up to moral failure is both an admission of past wrong and a commitment to being a better individual in the future.