If you ever struggle to keep to your goals, or flake on your personal development then learning how to be accountable may be the missing secret you need to level up in life.
Accountability may not be the most glamorous trait you could develop, but it might just be one of the most important.
Being accountable means taking responsibility for the outcomes of your actions. When you own your successes and failures, there’s no room for you to blame others.
This doesn’t mean that everything is always 100% your fault — sometimes things happen that are outside of your control. It just means that when things go sideways, you take the time to figure out why and how you can improve for next time instead of pointing fingers.
So how do we start being more accountable?
How to start being accountable
The first step to accountability is being honest with yourself about what you think you can accomplish and what you actually want to accomplish. Be specific about the things you commit to doing so that there is no room for confusion or misunderstanding.
Once you have your goal, here are some points to help you start being accountable:
Write down your goals
Write down what you want to achieve. This will solidify what it is you want to achieve and will stop you from altering the criteria on the fly.
It’s okay if your plans change as long as they are well thought out and you have a good reason for changing them. Of course, if you have someone else holding you accountable then they will have to agree to the change too.
This might be a good time to look into commitment contracts (aka accountability contacts) too. I’ve published a post on them here – What is a Commitment Contract and How to Use One.
Give yourself time limits
Give yourself a time limit in which you want to achieve your goal. If you do not set a time limit then it will be hard to hold yourself accountable.
Avoiding the mindset of I’ll do it tomorrow will go a long way to ensure that you start hitting your goals.
Find someone that will keep you accountable
This may be the most important step: find someone who will help you keep things on track. This person should be someone who you see regularly and who is not afraid to keep you honest. It will be best if this person is someone you care about letting down or someone who motivates you.
If you don’t want to share your goals with the people close to you then you could try joining an online community of like-minded people. Share your goal there and keep the community updated with your progress.
Try creating a punishment for yourself
If you are struggling to complete your goals then the thought of punishment may be enough to ensure you do. The punishment should be something that you are physically capable of, but do not want to do.
For example, there would be no point having a punishment of transferring your friend a large sum of money if you are flat broke – it wouldn’t be possible. But having to wash your friend’s car if you miss your goal might be the motivation you are looking for.
Give up excuses
Excuses are not good for your mental health, career, or relationships. Excuses are not good for your health or finances. It’s time to get rid of excuses and start being more accountable for the things you say you want in life.
If you find yourself making excuses, stop. Think about what you can do to make the situation better. Or what you did wrong that you can improve on next time.
If you are someone who tends to blame others for everything that goes wrong in life, then taking this step of giving up excuses and reaching a higher level of accountability will really help boost your personal growth. It may just be the step you need to absolutely smash your goals and take your life to the next level.
What are the benefits of being accountable?
There are many benefits to being accountable both at work and at home with the most important being that it breeds trust. It breeds trust in yourself and trust from others.
When you realise that you are holding yourself accountable, you begin to trust yourself more. You believe that you can accomplish more and you know that when you fail, you will learn from the mistakes you made.
You also create trust with others as they will see that you are not be quick to blame everyone else. That if mistakes are made then you will learn from them and use what you have learned to get the task done. This will encourage others to try harder in your presence too – they know you won’t blame them out of turn.
Conclusion
While accountability might seem like a “nice to have” in one area of our lives, it can be transformative across the board. When we start really paying attention to our actions, we can take steps towards building habits that make us healthier and more productive.
Thanks for reading
Iain McClafferty – The Five Year Mortgage
