The Importance of Accountability
Accountability is such a vital part of self-development. Here is why.
But first, what is accountability? Accountability means that you hold yourself, and only yourself, responsible for what happens with you and others. You hold yourself responsible (accountable) for everything in your life, ranging from your daily work output, to your conflicts with your spouse. It means no excuses, I’m the one at fault here.
I associate accountability with control. When you hold yourself accountable for failures and mistakes (those of others too), you are telling yourself that you were the cause of that mistake or failure. But this also means that you are the one who could have avoided the mistake. You are the one who is in control of the result.
Using accountability to give yourself control over the result entails a few things.
It first formulates a mental switch that you control every instance of your life. You are the one fully responsible. It means you don’t blame the weather, other people, or random obstacles for your screw-ups. You blame yourself. And when you do so, you move away from a life of excuses and “I can’t” toward one of responsibility and “I can.”
This is very powerful because instead of letting mistakes fly away and pushing errors away from you, your bring them in nice and tight. You grasp them. And when you do so, you have the ability to learn and reflect upon them. You take advantage of your failure by absorbing it and using it to propel yourself higher. This is ultimate goal of self-development: embracing your gaps, failures, and mistakes to formulate a better you tomorrow. So in essence, accountability maybe the first step of self-development.
Because if you never make yourself responsible for your life’s future and current output, you will never make progress; exactly because the only way to make progress is not luck, genetics, or help from others. We make progress in our self-development journey because of ourselves, and nothing else. As such, accountability is key for success in personal development, self-development, and self-improvement (same thing).
I currently know of four main ways to practice accountability.
The first is the accountability mirror. This is David Goggins’ method, and I explained it in detail in the article where I reviewed his book. But basically, every day, whatever time works for you — whether it be in the morning or before bed, take an honest look at yourself and how your day went. Spit out what didn’t go well, or a time when you made a puny excuse. Spit out what is making you soft and holding you back. The mirror is a way to release the brain vomit clogging your accountability such that your realize it and revise yourself accordingly.
The second is the accountability mirror. This is generally used for things that you want to do, but know will be hard to execute consistently. Say you want to workout 4 times a week, start journaling every day, or finish your science project by next Friday. Your accountability partner is there to hold you accountable for completing your goal/new activity. The reason why this works is that the accountability partner filters out all your excuses and forces you to commit towards that thing you want to be held accountable for. This can be done via a simple text back and forth system. For example, you tell your partner that you have completed your every-other-day core workout. But if you don’t, then the accountability partner comes back at ya and questions as to why you didn’t. You make some excuses, or perhaps a valid reason. But most likely this conversation will end in your realizing that you were soft and just made some puny excuse. Hence, you are the one responsible. Another thing: if you use this system, never lie to your partner, as this will defeat the whole purpose of the accountability partner and waste both of your time. This system gives you a little motivation to do that new thing you can’t hold yourself accountable for yet. But one thing to mention is that I wouldn’t rely on this system in the long-term because ultimately, you are the one who should be holding yourself accountable. You are the one who should be in power. So use this method only if you are a beginner in a field you want to be held accountable for (example: fitness). Overtime, gradually move towards holding yourself accountable.
The third is journaling. This is the same thing as the accountability mirror, just in written form. This might be more beneficial for people who are better at a logical (rather than an emotional) analysis of themselves and can generally express themselves better through writing. But this time, you not only spit out your failures/mistakes, but actually reflect upon those failures that you are accountable for. Write out everything you could have done differently and why. Then use this new knowledge to avoid making the same failure/mistake again.
The fourth and more spontaneous one is a daily reminder. Here and there, remind yourself that you are the one accountable for the thing you are doing at the very moment. As simple as this sounds, it can work. But also make sure to catch yourself when you make an excuse and reverse it towards an accountable thought.
With that said, here are some examples of the utility of accountability.
Let’s say you are a lazy athlete and have trouble committing to a consistent aerobic and muscular endurance training schedule. You find excuses to skip workouts and often blame your sleep or school work for that. But if you use one of the methods to hold yourself accountable, you will realize that your excuses make no sense and only stop you from achieving your goals as an athlete. In fact, you can make every single training activity, you just have to take responsibility and stop making excuses.
Let’s stay you’re a high school student that constantly struggles to get above an 80 on a test for a particular class. You blame the teacher for explaining the material poorly and you also blame her for giving test questions that are too hard or out of range for the test topic. You feel that you have no escape so you keep feeling sorry for yourself. You also sympathize with the other students who get similar test results as you. But none of this will help you get a higher score on the next test. If you realize this, and hold yourself, not your teacher, accountable for your test score, you will find new ways to approach the test and achieve success. If you take full responsibility of your studying and have no choice but to pass, I bet that you will pass.
