Here’s the 411 on Accountability: It was never something you or I signed up for, but something that we had to endure as children, teens, and young adults. Like a form of torture, a poor version of it was usually forced upon us by adults, and so much so that we unconsciously grew to resist and resent it. Surprise, surprise!
When we turned 18 or left home, we embraced all of the freedom that we could get our hands on, avoiding accountability like the plague, perpetuating a downward spiral into mediocrity or worse, developing detrimental mindsets and habits such as laziness, deflecting responsibility, and taking short cuts— the surefire app for non-success.
Now that we are all grown up, and striving to achieve success and fulfillment, we will want to take on a new kind of responsibility of initiating our own systems and processes for our accountability, a celebrated accountability, or else not, and just move back in with our parents!
The link between success and accountability is irrefutable. Virtually all highly successful people—from Olympic athletes to billionaire start-up CEOs to Presidents— embrace a super charged form of accountability. They have proven to themselves that it gives them the boom of leverage so they can take action and create results that others are not able to produce, even when they don’t feel like it! Cool.
Very little happens in this world, or in your life, without some form of accountability. Virtually every positive result you and I produced from birth to age eighteen was thanks to the accountability provided for us by the adults in our lives (parents, teachers, bosses, etc.). Vegetables got eaten, homework was completed, teeth were brushed, we bathed, and got to bed at a reasonable hour. If it weren’t for the accountability provided for us by our parents and teachers, we would have been uneducated, malnourished, sleep-deprived, dirty little kids!
Just think about it: The countries without it are the ones with the bread and gas lines. Accountability has brought order to our lives and allowed us to progress, improve, and achieve results we wouldn’t have otherwise.
Here is the 10 quick-step-process to put you onto the road to great success through ‘celebrated accountability’:
Step 1:
“Clearly” identify what you want.
Write down exactly what you want to achieve in as much detail as possible, the more detail, the better your chance of achievement. Use numbers wherever you can to achieve less subjectivity and more specificity.
Step 2:
Date your goals. Unless you commit to a start and end date, your ability to be accountable is questionable.
Step 3:
List the obstacles you will have to overcome.
There will always be obstacles along the way that try to prevent you from attaining your goals, so identify them upfront.
Step 4:
List who will help you achieve your goals. This could be coworkers, manager, clients, and …
Step 5:
Make a LIST of the skills and knowledge you need.
Do you have these skills, or do you need to develop them?
If you need to acquire new skills or knowledge, write down a specific plan to develop those within a time frame.
Step 6:
Write down all of the specific actions you need to take to achieve each goal.
Prioritize those actions to begin creating a great plan of action.
Step 7:
Have mile markers, the numbers you must achieve daily/weekly to monitor your progress.
Make a commitment to hit those numbers each day/week and to make up any that are missed!
Step 8:
List the BENEFITS of goal achievement: “What’s in it for me?”
What is your incentive to do this?
Is the incentive strong enough to ensure you will achieve this goal?
For some of us, we might ask: “What price am I paying and what price are the people I love paying for me to not becoming as successful as I could be?” Ouch.
Step 9:
Schedule and take action every day at the time when you are at your maximum energy level.
Make a personal commitment to act on your goals, and live up to your commitment every single day, and always make up any missed commitment by finding an accountability partner; a colleague, friend, or coach to report your results to every single day/week – no exceptions.
Step 10:
Celebrate your positive results! Create rewards along the way (daily or weekly) to subconsciously encourage yourself to continue to embrace the better kind of accountability for you.