The Journey To Success Through Accountability
Accountability to your goals is often the thing behind the scenes that people don’t see when someone is successful.
Does everyone in business and life need accountability?
Yes and no.
Yes, for with accountability it will be a faster route to achieving your goals.
No, in the sense that not all people are on a mission to achieve an outcome or establish a habit and to get somewhere quicker. (And that is perfectly fine.)
Some people are better than others at self-management and self-accountability. According to Gretchen Rubin In her book, Better Than Before: Mastering The Habits of Our Everyday Lives, there are 4 types of people. Upholders, Questioners, Rebels and Obligers.
Upholder
Very good at self-management and self-accountability. These people will uphold personal commitments as well as commitments to other people, without any difficulty or needing any outside help.
Questioners
Generally good at both types of commitments: to oneself (such as I commit to going to the gym 5 times this week or am quitting sugar, and they will be able to stick to this) and when the commitment is to others, providing it stacks up according to their value system, after they have questioned the logic behind requests and rules, they will be successful.
Rebels
They are their own boss and will mostly do their own thing when it suits them.
Obligers
Generally great at sticking to all commitments they have made to other people but bad at committing to their own. Apparently, according to the book the majority of people are obligors. So when these people want to complete a personal goal that has nothing to do with someone else such as get fit, or go the gym, or get a book written, they will struggle.
Are you a person that needs accountability?
Generally, you will know the answer to this. You know yourself enough to know what you want; what your goals are in a particular time frame, and to be able to monitor your success rate towards achieving them.
If you are a person that needs external help, a helpful Definition of Accountability is:
Making a commitment to a particular action, accepting responsibility for completing that action, and then reporting on how well you performed.
I’m going to break each part down, of this helpful definition, to shed some deeper light on the process of accessing accountability and using it to our advantage.
When implementing the first part of the definition; making a commitment to a particular action, it will be helpful to answer the following in relation to your action or goal:
What does this action mean to you or what will it give you?
In what frequency does this need to happen? (Is it a once off, or a regular activity such as daily, weekly, monthly activity?)
Do you have a burning desire to have the effects or outcome of this goal/action?
How will the achievement of this action make you feel?
How will you know when you have achieved your goal?
When implementing the second part of the definition which is accepting responsibility for that action, there are a few factors which will enable your success.
One factor is a true alignment with your goal or action. Alignment increases your chances of counting on yourself to achieve it. Often we think we want something, but once we take action we realise we made a mistake, or the action is so loathsome to us that overcoming the emotions and resistance to doing it, are too hard, which negate the goal.
In reality there is no chance of us ever committing or sticking to the thing we think we want, if our action and follow through when we try is lacking or not one hundred percent. We want it, but not badly enough.
It will always be harder to make a commitment if the achievement of this action has not been elevated as a number one priority.
So, it comes back to knowing ourselves. And back to the question of how strong the desire to have this goal really is. If you take exercise for example, some people really struggle with this. They believe they want the benefits, but the reality of the pain involved to get started and stick with it, is too difficult. The truth is, for those of us that regularly exercise, the first three days of getting back into it, are painful and difficult, and then it gets easier and easier. You just have to keep pushing through the resistance until you get to the other side. Once the benefits kick in, there is no turning back. So, it is a mind game. But to push through, the burning desire must be strong. And once you push through and the activity becomes a habit, you are mostly sailing in the direction of success.
And then there is the question of belief that the goal you want is possible for you. You have to believe that the benefit is worth it. Without this belief, getting through the initial pain and discomfort of commitment is really hard. For example, if you are an entrepreneur you have to believe that taking action in the face of uncertainty will yield the fruits. You have to take action without guarantees, repeatedly, over and over, before you might see any results.
So, if you fall into the camp of strong emotions of resistance but your burning desire and belief to overcome the resistance is still strong, here are some tips to push through the mind barriers:
Do the hardest thing first. Brian Tracy called it Eat That Frog. (Don’t think just do.)
Make a plan in your schedule for when you will be doing it and organise yourself around this
Turn off social media and all distractions until it is done.
Set a timer or alarm
Work out a motivating reward. (If I for do this for the next seven days I will get to……)
Make a public declaration
Ask someone to hold you accountable.
If you are motivated by fear and worst-case scenarios ask yourself and conjure up a really strong feeling of what will happen if you don’t get on top of this habit?
Keep trying.
If you fail, that’s ok, simply recommit. Take one day at a time.
The third part is reporting on how well you performed.
Reporting to whom, though? That is the million-dollar question.
When you are ready to be held accountable, the person to whom you report needs to be:
✔Reliable
✔Committed to being there for you
✔Clear on your goals and objectives and the why behind the commitment you are making
✔Trustworthy
✔On board with playing the role of holding you to account
When you set up the arrangement make sure:
You specify a time frame of frequency for when you both meet up again and report back on how you went.
How do you find someone?
✔You engage a coach
✔You engage a friend or fellow entrepreneur
✔You join a mastermind group
✔You join a group coaching program
✔You even set up your own accountability group
So, in summary the crux of the journey to success through accountability is all about being ready to make a commitment to faster progress then you would otherwise have had on your own.
When is the right time to make a commitment to a particular action?
✔When you are fed up with your results
✔When you are ready to get to the next level
✔When you have a burning desire to achieve something
✔When you are in transition and need that extra support and encouragement
If you are interested in getting some accountability in any area of your life I am looking for some people to test drive an accountability program I'm creating. (Comment below and I will PM details).