The Secret Ingredient to Success: Accountability

How come it’s so fun to talk about goals, plans, strategy, team, and clients, but not so sexy to talk about Accountability? Yes, I capitalized that word. Because starting today, we’re about to give it a whole new level of respect. 

 

Why Accountability is so important

Have you ever had an excellent plan? Like a ‘Couch to 5k’ strategy with every day telling you EXACTLY how far to run? Or a recipe book telling you PRECISELY which foods to eat at what times of the day to support your health through food? Or a Mindset Coach who told you exactly what to think about or journal on to shift your belief system around something significant to you?

The thing about those super stellar plans, laid out all before you, and that all you have to do is follow them. And then ever experience the feeling of ‘ahhh, my alarm went off. I’m still tired. Just 5 more minutes,’ which turns into over sleeping and no running for the day? 

Or what about the moment of ‘damn, I’m so hungry, I missed lunch (did I miss breakfast too?) and this drive through window will be quicker than my original plan?

Or you catch yourself feeling frustrated and nasty toward someone, you can hear your Mindset Coach’s voice in your head inviting you to replace those survival emotions of anger for a higher shelf option, only to say to yourself ‘yeah, well, she is totally going to agree with me on this one, this person is such a jerk!’

Do you know why we can talk ourselves OUT of the very thing we said we desired? In one word: Accountability.

 

Playing by rules that steal your confidence

So, answer this for me. 

1. Did you want the goal? Are you the one who raised your hand and said ‘yes, I want better health physically/emotionally/spiritually?’
2. Did you agree to the plan?

So what’s the catch? You want the change. You believe changing your behavior will yield more joy, abundance, and happiness in your life. 

The catch, my sweet friend, is you don’t have any accountability to seeing the plan through to the end. 

The catch is you don’t want it badly enough to change your current habits and replace them with new ones. 

And the unfortunate side effect is every time you tell yourself you’re going to do something, and you get alllllll fired up and pumped up for the ‘big’ change in your life, and you DON’T follow through? You are completely disempowering yourself for the next ‘big’ change you want to take on.

And the really sucky part about it is it becomes a habit over time. You can become that person, that friend who’s always making big statements and claims, and never seeing them through to completion. 

You know what you need?  Yep, you guessed it. Accountability.

 

So how can you leverage Accountability?

Being accountable is not rocket science, yet it can require of you the same focus and will power that took astronauts to the moon.

Five traits of accountability. Diminish your power in one of them, and it turns down the effectiveness of all of them.

• Perseverance: you have to want the new goal or new result so badly that regardless of the snow outside or Aunt Nina’s delicious chocolate cake, you won’t budge on your plan.

• Desire: the desire has to be burning in you so brightly that NO ONE and NOTHING is going to snuff your flame out.

• Will Power: this is a mental muscle, and one ANYONE can strengthen. You have to be so resolute on holding the image in your mind of the life/outcome/desire which you DO want (PS want in on a secret? Most people spend their life holding the image in their mind of the things they DON’T want. And what you think about is what you invite into your life!)

• Belief: if you are already seeing yourself messing up and NOT doing the thing you said you wanted to do, then you don’t believe in yourself. No one can give you belief – this is a trait earned all on your own. You either do or you don’t believe you’ll do it.

• Giving a s*** about letting someone down: when you put yourself on the line with your best friend, client, spouse, kids, God, YOURSELF, and you actually care about the person enough to not want to let them down? That can be just what you need to actually get your butt out of bed. Or refuse the chocolate cake. Or stop yourself from talking trash about the jerk. Most people can’t be accountable to themselves because sadly enough, you are often the easiest person to let down. #amiright?

How do you rate?

So how are you on accountability? Are you a rockstar, making few promises and keeping them all? Or are you seeing an invitation now to beef up your ‘accountability’ mental muscle and start following through to yourself and others on your word?

And oh, by the way, the BEST part about strengthening the accountability muscle? You’ll build such belief in your body and mind that anything you say you’re going to do, you find a way to do it. So the goals get bigger. The desires get stronger. And the impact and adventure in your life becomes worthy of your legacy.

 

xx,

Christa

PS need some support on getting aligned with your goal? Check out my post here on Goal Alignment.

PSS struggling with building a robust plan? Here’s my bulletproof guide to planning like a pro that I use with my clients.