April 26th 2018 Accountability
A one word title, it's been a while since I've done one of these. A little over a year ago I did a post about goal setting, it's a decent post except for one major flaw. I never emphasized how important accountability is in achieving your goals. So Joe's and Joette's buckle up for this ride because there is some good information buried in here.
But, before I get too deep into the post let me tell you what inspired it. Nope it wasn't the post from a year ago, this post was inspired by a new piece of content that I am trying to bring to you, the audience. A video book discussion of some of the best business books. The main topic in the conversation was the difficulty of reading these types of books nonstop. One of the titles on the list to read was a book that I had been reading for over a year and still hadn't finished. The commitment of producing this piece of content was holding me accountable. Sounds stupid but accountability to me is a promise, it's an agreement between myself and someone or something. Promises are big to me and I have talked about it before. If a person does not have their word what do they have? So how does accountability apply to almost any aspect in life?
Let's put Accountability into some real world scenarios. The first scenario is health and wellness, mainly working out. Most people prefer working out in a gym environment because of the atmosphere. I noticed something during my time at the gym, most people workout with a buddy. Heck I only go to the gym with friends, sure it's more fun but that's not the only reason. They help push me and make sure I'm working hard. Yes I know that people don't all workout with friends. But guess what, personal trainers make a lot of money. The reason why is because people pay them to hold them accountable. That's the main job of a personal trainer, to help their client live a lifestyle by following a list of tasks. Sure they give you some exercises to do but you can Google them. You pay them to hold you accountable.
Let's talk about accountability in a different field, meetings. What type of meetings, I'm talking about impactful ones like A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous). When you join the group as a new comer, you are given the task of finding a sponsor. What is the role of a sponsor, they basically act like a big sibling or best friend. You are supposed to call them if you feel like picking the habit up again. In other words they are in charge of holding you accountable. They call you if your late to a meeting and talk you through hard times. This helps the person kick the habit and later on the person becomes a sponsor.
In the world of business, entrepreneurs sometimes have mentors. Mentors are there to point the entrepreneur in the right direction. If the mentor is in communication with the entrepreneur then they will give them tasks. These tasks are given to help the entrepreneur gain traction and or success on their business. How do I know this, I had a mentor back when I did network marketing. They took me under their wing and taught me personally. They did their best to hold me accountable. It was fine except for one problem, which is the biggest downfall of accountability.
The biggest drawback of accountability is.... YOU, the individual. Even with someone holding us accountable, most of us do not act. Even though I had a mentor holding me accountable, I was too lazy to do the actual work. Willpower is needed more than accountability. You must want to change in order to search for someone to hold you accountable. But you must have willpower to see it through. At that point in my life I did not have the willpower to see my mentorship until the end. That's why now I make sure to deliver whenever one of my mentors holds me accountable.
So how do you get someone to hold you accountable? You ask. You can get someone close to you but they might be too lenient on you. You can join a group of like minded individuals and find someone within the group to hold you accountable. Where do you find these groups, meetups. If you don't want to meet people in person you can join a Mastermind Group or join a Reddit community. Worst case scenario, hold yourself accountable.
Holding yourself accountable is harder but works just as well. Write down to do lists and make sure you do all of the items. Sounds easy to do and also easy to not do. Honestly the only way that you will be able to hold yourself accountable is if your goal outweighs the journey. See accountability ties into the post I did a year ago about goal setting. If your goal is to get your family out of poverty, you will have a strong goal. So when presented with a choice of; A. Work until two in the morning to better your family or B. Going out with your friends to a bar or club. This person is more likely to chose option A, because the image of their family out of poverty is holding them accountable. That's how you hold yourself accountable, by using your goals.
Joe's and Joette's , that's basically it for this post. If you enjoyed this post thanks, if not oh well. Either way feel free to leave me a comment down below. If you want more content, you can subscribe to the Books By Josh Show on ITunes, Google Play Music and Stitcher. If you want more content then that you can check us out on YouTube. To get notified whenever we post make sure you follow us on Twitter or Facebook. If you wish to support the site, the best way is to tell your friends about us. If you want to show more love feel free to subscribe or support us. If that still isn't enough, feel free to become a patreon or buy a signed copy of my book from our store page. All of the links to everything can be found at the bottom of this post and like always...... I'll catch you guys in the next one, see-ya.