Accountability. What does it really mean for your success?

Perhaps both an overused and misunderstood term that is bandied about frequently. For many it may have a negative association – of taking the blame for things not working out as planned.

However if we are to consider how we start and maintain action it is something we need to have a clearer understanding of, if we care to keep up our momentum towards our goal for full success.

Accountability is not about allocating blame, it is about taking ownership and responsibility for the actions regardless of the result. It is something to contemplate as we come towards the end of 2017 and talk of planning for 2018 starts to slip into our everyday conversations. If we want to make our goals a reality, then identifying how we will be accountable is a vital component of success. We may have knowledge of how to realise the goal, we may be doing some of the actions that will get us to the end result but if there is no sense of being committed from an emotional perspective then probably only a lower level of success will be realised.

What do we mean by emotional perspective when we speak about accountability? Rather than ‘having to’ do the actions, we are ‘choosing to’ commit with all of our skills and resources. We choose to give it our very best. This is a powerful alternative to an effort that could be viewed as (just) ‘good enough’ to not have blame attached for the poor results

Rather than waiting for others to create change, or in some cases give permission for the change, we can decide to work from inside of ourselves first, our whole selves. Instead of waiting for the right person and/or circumstances to be in place for our goal to succeed, we are fully honest with ourselves in knowing we can choose to take control of our thinking and our actions to make it happen.

We can work from the inside out and not leave our success to depend on those outside of us. That is real honest accountability, it is about choice, taking ownership of your choices, your actions and making changes as you empower yourself for success.