3.7 Summary
Key Takeaways
- Canadians have fundamental rights, including equality, legal, mobility, language, and democratic.
- Freedoms allow individuals to act, speak, and think freely within the boundaries of the law. Key freedoms include conscience and religion, peaceful assembly, association, thought, belief, opinion, and expression.
- Misusing freedoms undermines societal safety and respect. Limits exist to balance individual freedoms with collective well-being.
- While victimhood may arise when one’s rights are violated, crimes are committed, or uncontrollable circumstances occur, adopting a victim mentality can hinder the pursuit of wellness via the abdication of self-responsibility.
- Embracing self-responsibility fosters accountability, empowerment, and personal growth.
- Proactive individuals plan, focus on long-term goals, and take control of their actions, while reactive individuals respond impulsively, often leading to inconsistent or negative outcomes.
- Effective decision-making involves focusing on areas of control and influence rather than worrying about external concerns beyond one’s reach.
- Setting specific, measurable, realistic, and time-sensitive goals provides direction and motivation, breaking down aspirations into achievable steps that lead to long-term success.
Key Terms
- Victim: Someone who suffers harm, loss, or disadvantage due to external forces they could not control or prevent.
- Victim blaming: When a victim of a crime, illness, or other harmful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm they experienced.
- Victim mentality: An acquired personality trait where a person tends to see themselves (or others) as a victim of negative actions by others in the absence of evidence or when circumstances suggest otherwise.
- Self-responsibility: The state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something(s) within one’s power, control, or management.
- Proactivity: Making intentional and deliberate decisions with a focus on both present and future outcomes.
- Reactivity: Responding to situations as they occur, often without preparation or consideration of future outcomes.
- Circle of Concern: Includes everything one might care about or worry about in life.
- Circle of Influence: Represents the areas where you can have an impact, even if you can’t fully control the outcomes.
- Circle of Control: Includes everything you have direct control over, such as how you respond to your thoughts and feelings.
