Self-care…..It’s a scary word, isn’t it? Often times we assume that we don’t need anyone else to hold us accountable for our actions, or lack of because we can do that ourselves. But do we, really? What happens when you don’t follow through with your plans or take action to achieve your goals? Perhaps you do need to develop your self-accountability, after all.

I recently joined a course to take my business to the next level. Everyone on the course shared the same common goal, but when we were asked to buddy up for an accountability system, I found myself questioning whether it was really necessary for me. As an intrinsically motivated person, I felt like this was a little intrusive: would someone be watching over my shoulder, spying to make sure I did what I said I would?

Why did this thought make me feel uncomfortable? When I broke it down, I realized I had been mistaking my self-motivation for self-accountability.

So How Do You Tell The Difference?

Motivation is the reason (the why) you want to do something. Accountability is the means by which we make it happen (the how).

In real life, that means that when I go for a run with my running group on Saturday, my motivation is that I want to run a marathon, and I need to get in a certain number of training miles before I can do that. My accountability is that if I don’t turn up, I won’t be able to participate in the marathon. Also, my running group will hold me accountable by questioning why I didn’t turn up and whether I have completed the rest of the training through the week.

If you need help with your motivation you can check out this blog post I wrote on How To Increase Your Motivation.

Accountability is taking responsibility for your actions to ensure you follow through with them. You can be held accountable in many ways:

• Your fitness/nutrition coach holds you accountable to fill out the food log. They will question whether or not you have done it, and if you haven’t, then you are not able to move forward in your nutrition goals with them. Perhaps they can’t do the next part of their job because you haven’t delivered the goods necessary to complete it.
• Your friend stops by every Tuesday to go for a walk together. If you don’t go, you have wasted her time, let her down, broken trust. It is your responsibility to ensure that you follow through on the plans you made with her.
• You need to fill out your training log daily to know how your fitness journey is progressing. If you don’t, then you won’t know what progress you’ve made or how you are able to move forward from it. You prevent yourself from achieving your goals by not ensuring that you follow through on the requirements you placed upon yourself.

But more than just following through, accountability also means admitting mistakes or owning up to not having done what you said you would. Whether those promises were to someone else or simply to yourself, the accountability for it remains equally important.

When deciding whether you need an accountability buddy or not, you first need to consider the different types of accountability and which one works best for you.

How To Develop Self-Accountability Now

The 4 Types Of Accountability

1. Individual Accountability is when one person is part of the solution, for example, your coach following up on your nutrition log.
2. Reciprocal Accountability – This is when you find someone who has the same goal as you and hold each other accountable for following through with your planned actions. For example, the business strategy group course that I joined.
3. Team Accountability – Everyone in the team is responsible for their own actions and progression, but collectively, they pursue the same goal and hold each other accountable for it. My running group is a good example of this.
4. Self – or personal accountability means you are responsible for your choices and actions. You are the first and last line of defense for your own integrity, as no one else is holding you to your word.

But why do you even need to know this? Well, because accountability brings many benefits, not least that you have to face the consequences of not following through with your intentions.

How Does Accountability Benefit You?

Thomas Monson said: “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

With accountability basically monitoring your performance, it’s clearly a productive method of keeping you on track to complete your tasks and achieve your goals. I reckon there are five main, undeniable benefits that accountability offers. Here’s why you need to step up your game and be held accountable.

1. You are committing to a goal. It makes you more motivated and more likely to take ownership of the process involved in your action plan. More than this, though, having to check in with a trusted partner motivates you to improve your skills and do a BETTER job, not just any job.
2. It creates clarity. By writing down your goals: why, what, and how to get what you want to achieve, you have a super clear vision of what that journey looks like and how best you can get to the endpoint that you desire. A clear goal with a clear path is much more attainable than a half-baked idea that you are trying to figure out as you go. Having an accountability partner means that you have someone who can help track your progress and realign your next moves to be more in tune with your end goal if you become stuck.
3. To help you overcome roadblocks. Did you know you were stuck? Sometimes, an outside eye is much better placed to see where the improvements are necessary. If you get stuck in the process and need some constructive feedback on what works and what doesn’t, your accountability partner is the person to offer it.
4. By setting milestones that you can track the progress of, the achievement of, and the results of, you gain an intimate understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Whether this is for your fitness journey, health plan, or business goals, you will become more competent in the skills required for any of them and better placed to map out the next part of the journey.
5. We perform better when observed. Whilst you might think it puts you off your A-game, a recent study by professors at the Johns Hopkins University released findings that having an audience, or at least a few people, watching what you’re doing makes you perform better and more likely to achieve your targets.

So, if your accountability buddy (whether through a friend, coach, team, group, or other) has your back to such high ends, is it worth sacrificing it for self-accountability?  Can we achieve the same levels of success through self-accountability? Is self-accountability a naturally effective means of productivity, or does it need to be developed to be effective?

I say it can! As a highly motivated, determined woman, I am able to hold myself accountable because I have developed a system that makes it easy for me to follow through with my intentions. We often don’t follow through because we become overwhelmed and lose motivation to continue. I want to empower you to develop self-accountability and smash your targets!

8 Ways You Can Develop Self-Accountability In Life

1. Create a list of your core values. What do you want in life or business, and what is important to you? Then, create a healthy community. Strive to only be around people who share or support your values because you don’t need to be around people whose values, goals, or lifestyles contradict your own. If you want to be fit and healthy, you need to spend time with other people who like to be fit and healthy, not with people who want to spend all their time drinking at bars.
2. Set mini-goals. You don’t have to achieve everything at once. You can’t just suddenly decide, right? I’m going to run a 10k marathon tomorrow even though I’ve never run further than ten steps to the bus stop! Break your goals into baby steps and focus on one step at a time.
3. Be smart about lists. Whilst making to-do lists is a great way to start off your self-accountability practice, you don’t want to create more stress than necessary by turning your life plan into a monthly attainment list! I use the KISS method. Which means – Keep It Simple, Silly! It’s self-explanatory, really. Make your lists, but keep them simple and achievable.
4. Do one thing at a time. You might think you are great at multitasking, but the time you spend on all those other tasks is taking time away from you, perfecting that one thing you need to achieve to progress and move forward in your bigger picture. Stop multitasking and do one thing better each month.
5. Focus on competency. Positive motivation is a stronger driving force than negative criticism. Don’t waste time or energy putting yourself down for not completing your entire to-do list. Instead, focus on what you are already doing well so that you feel good, and it spurs you on to keep going.
6. Stay focused. You can always do more, but you don’t really need to. Focus on your mini-goals and get better at one thing at a time.
7. Ask for help. If you work with an accountability buddy, an important part of their role is to provide you with constructive feedback to empower you to move forward in the best direction for your goals. You can still do this even if you opt for self-accountability. In fact, you are holding yourself accountable by admitting that you need help and taking the steps necessary to move forward. Ask your friend, your coach, the local fitness center, a Facebook Support group, whatever works as long as you get the help you need to progress.
8. Take inventory. Your life is not one straight path. U-turns and crossroads are scattered all over the place, and you need to stop at each point and decide which route is the best for you to take. Review where you have come from, where you are trying to get to, and what the next baby step to bridge the gap should be.

Celebrate Your Success

No matter how small you think they are, celebrate your mini success when you take inventory. Whether you managed to eat a vegetable every day for a week or you ran a marathon in record-breaking time, you smashed that goal and you deserve to recognize it.

Accept responsibility for, and be accountable for, your goal and your action plan, and enjoy your success. Acknowledging the positive steps forward helps you to keep moving forward by establishing your next goal on a scale relative to your progression.

So tell me, who is holding you accountable? I’d love to know whether you are more motivated when you have someone else holding you accountable or if you prefer to track your progress yourself. Maybe finding the balance with a bit of both spurs you on. Let me know in the comments how you will develop self-accountability now.