Weekly TimBit-Self-accountability – the key to sustained success.
There are many traits that when embraced can contribute to enduring success. At last count when it comes to success, I found over; 25,000 books, 15 million articles on the net, 500,000 seminars of various kinds and 450,000 personal/career success coaches who proclaim they can guide your journey towards your dreams, desires and goals. That's a lot of resources folks. With all of these resources available to everyone – many free – you would have to wonder why so many people struggle in their search for success. Why is this?
For starters, I don't care how much time you spend every day studying success, researching success or working towards it. In the end you probably need less that one tenth of one percent of all of the available material to enjoy the benefits of success. So what's the problem? Simple – if you lack self-accountability no matter how much you read, study, learn and practice or believe you are doing all the right things – success will elude you. So why is this trait so vital when it comes to reaching the stars in your career or life?
What exactly is self-accountability? Well for starters it has a lot to do with intention, discipline and commitment. Commitment and discipline are very close cousins. Commitment is simply a decision to follow through, stick with something no matter what and not allow yourself to be derailed due to circumstances either planned for or unexpected. Discipline is a routine that you follow and don't permit yourself to have any reason or excuse not to stay the course. So as you can see if you have commitment and discipline you have a good chance for success but there are still two other factors that will determine your ultimate success and those are intention and self-accountability.
Intention is what you plan to do, say you will do and then – do. To say it or plan for it and not do it no matter how many words you give yourself or others is simply being a fraud. You are misleading yourself and not honoring your goals, mission, purpose or plans when you only say it and don't do it. This is a lack of intention no matter how often or well you try and delude yourself.
But the real one that will determine the ultimate success of commitment, discipline and intention is self-accountability. So again, what is this trait and how can you cultivate it or maintain it?
Self-accountability is holding yourself accountable. If you say you are going to do something and you don't do it and you don't hold yourself accountable you are essentially letting yourself off the hook and just kidding yourself. You are living in fantasy-land.
Without self-accountability all of the commitment, intention and discipline in the world won't help you achieve success – you must hold yourself accountable to your goals, plans, objectives and statements that are in alignment with these. You do this by developing benchmarks, consequences or measuring devices. A benchmark is guideline to help you determine your progress against some standard or objective. If you want to lose 20 pounds and you don't develop a daily or bi-weekly device to measure any deviation from your goal then it's nothing more than a wish or a hope. Therefore you develop a list of dates and weight loss goals to determine regular progress. If you miss the mark one day or one week you ask yourself why and then take corrective action.
Consequences can be a form of self-punishment. For example if you have a plan or goal to tithe 10% of your income and any week you don't do this you pay a price and the price should be determined in advance. No television for a week. No sweets for a week. No browsing the internet for a week. Whatever you choose for the consequences of not sticking with your plan have to hurt a bit otherwise they will not deter you from breaking your commitment again. Plus if you don't follow your plan and don't execute the consequence well, once again you are just kidding yourself.
This is self-accountability. To turn hopes and wishes into reality you have to measure progress against your benchmarks and when you don't reach a benchmark you evaluate why and change your approach or fix the problem. Excuses don't count and there are no legitimate reasons for not sticking to the plan. But to make the whole process work you need the plans, goals, benchmarks and then you must be relentless with your self-accountability.
Why don't people exhibit self-accountability when they say they are going to – whatever? It again comes back to intention, discipline and commitment. Lack any of these and you are just deluding yourself with false hope and useless plans or objectives. A perfect example is New Year's Resolutions. Words folks, just words for most people.
To develop self-accountability you need the following – a plan, clear objectives, benchmarks, consequences of failure to follow your plan and yes, a reward when you reach a benchmark or achieve the goal. Every week I maintain my desired weight I reward myself with a desert. Any week I fail, well, no reward. And, everything should be in writing.
To maintain self-accountability you need to carefully evaluate your intention, ask yourself – do I really mean it? Then identify possible areas where you might have a tendency to let yourself off the hook or lose your discipline or commitment – then follow the above steps. Simple? Yes. Easy, No. If it was, everyone would achieve enduring success regardless of how they choose to define it.
Make ita tremendous year, In His service, Tim
Posted for
Tim Connor
Marketing & Sales,Website,AdvertisingMHSpeakerTrainer-Manager
MHProNews.com= The MHIndustry's#1 News, Tips and Views you can Use.
MHLivingNews.com= Free resource to enhance MH HomeOwner Satisfaction and MH Image Building
See some of our client Testimonials here
Connect with me on LinkedIn, send an invite to connect to:
You can read some of myfree business building articles on:
The Cutting Edge of Marketing and Sales Blog
Words of Wisdom Blog
Management, Sales and Inspirational columns on the MHProNews.com home page, featured articles.
To join our next Free Webinar on enhancing your Internet and other Marketing, please hit reply send me a message. Limit 12 per webinar, so questions and answers are available at the end of the session.