Git Up, Git Out
When practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I use personal responsibility and accountability (collectively “ownership”). For improved understanding, responsibility is defined as the quality or state of being responsible, such as a moral, legal, or mental accountability.
Here, “responsible” is defined as liable to be called to account as the primary cause, motive, or agent, and being able to answer for one’s conduct and obligations—something, such as the demands of conscience or custom, that obligates one to a course of action.
Also, “accountable” is defined as subject to giving an account—a statement explaining one’s conduct. Accountability is defined as the quality or state of being accountable, especially regarding an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.
When providing psychoeducational lessons on REBT, a psychotherapeutic modality which arguably requires that one preferably should take personal ownership in order to reduce self-distress or self-disturbance, I lean heavily on both responsibility and accountability.
This is because I maintain that people have personal agency (a person’s ability to control one’s own reactions to activating events which are beyond one’s own dominion, especially when one’s response is limited by someone or something else). This is a matter of self-empowerment.
I didn’t always practice personal ownership, as I disempoweringly experienced a difficult transition between graduating high school and enlisting in the military. Unfavorably, I blamed other people for my apparent shortcomings. Now, I’ll address one song that helped in this regard.
When I was in high school, the debut studio album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994) was released by hip hop duo OutKast (lyricist Big Boi and one of my top-five-dead-or-alive lyricists, André 3000). During that era, I enjoyed spending time with my gang-related friends.
However, not long after graduating in 1995, I left Amarillo, Texas to live with my dad in Aurora, Colorado, where I’d resided between halfway through my fifth to halfway through my seventh grade years. I missed my Amarillo friends and was no longer close to my former Aurora friends.
I then self-disturbed quite a bit with irrational beliefs, blaming just about everyone I could for the depression I’d fallen into. Those darkened times were interlaced with suicidal ideation, as well as homicidal ideation, and my disempowering lack of personal ownership didn’t help my outlook!
Favorably, I’d taken two cases of cassette tapes with me to Aurora. Among my collection was Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. It contained the track “Git Up, Git Out”, featuring Goodie Mob lyricists CeeLo and Big Gipp, and it was produced by Organized Noize.
For context, “git” is a southern term for “get.” I used to play the song repeatedly, even inviting my eight-years-younger half-sister to watch the video with me on the Black Entertainment Television (BET) program Rap City. Years later, she thanked me for puttin’ her on!
On the track, CeeLo states, “You need to git up, git out, and git something! Don’t let the days of your life pass by.” In this instance, the phrase “need to” serves as a recommendatory should belief which, in REBT, is acknowledged as a flexible form of encouragement.
I listened to those lyrics over and over, to the point whereby I ultimately decided to stop blaming others for my problems. Given that I’ve already alluded to that transitionary period of my life herein, can you guess what I then did? I got up, got out, and got something!
Specifically, I enlisted in the United States (U.S.) Marine Corps (1996). Helpfully, when attending U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Training in Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, I met a fellow southern recruit who also decided to git up, git out, and git somethin’!
Together, we’d whisper lyrics by Goodie Mob and OutKast to each other as a method of keeping one another motivated. Only when taking personal ownership for my dismal condition was I able to improve my situation! Now, I’m puttin’ you on. Why not give personal ownership a try?
Well, git up, git out, and git somethin’! Why are you still readin’ this blogpost? You recommendatorily should go improve your life! Or, are you gonna let the days of your life pass by?
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
References:
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