According to Sartre, your actions express who you are, they express your values. For example,

if you help a wounded bird, this might reaffirm certain beliefs you could have about animals being

sacred and innocent and so, by acting, you express your values. Sometimes, our actions express

undesirable values that we do not want to reflect who we are. So whenever we do something ‘bad’, we

often want to blame something else - such as our human nature, other people, God, a lack of options

instead of taking any responsibility. However, Sartre says none of these excuses are ever valid.

He reminds us that we are always free to act and react in any way we want to. There is no God who

tells you what to do, and you always have options. Even when someone else tells you what to do,

it is your choice to actually listen to it and do it. Every time you act a certain way,

you could have chosen to do otherwise. Thus, Sartre concludes, every choice that you make

is one you should take responsibility for. One side effect of total freedom is total

responsibility. If you refuse to accept this fact, you would go back to living in bad faith.

People tend to be a bit hypocritical:

their actions do not always represent their values. Someone who believes in a clean earth

might litter once in a while due to occasional laziness or having a bad day. Someone who usually

supports a certain political standpoint might vote for a party against that standpoint in favor of

their other promises.

Whenever we do something that aligns with our values or our image of who we want to be,

like helping that wounded bird, we want to be seen as free and responsible for that action. However,

whenever we do something that does not align with our values or our image of who we want to be,

we don’t want to be seen as responsible. It is at those times that we come up with excuses,

such as having ‘no choice’, because you were ordered to by your boss and so on. This is bad

faith.

So, whenever you act, make sure to think about what values this might express, what defines

who you are and what you stand for. Every single action is one you are responsible for, and denying

this responsibility in any case does not actually absolve you from your responsibility. Be true to

yourself, make sure to always act in a way that expresses your values and take responsibility

for each value you express through your actions - because you could have always done otherwise.