3 Ways to Keep Yourself Accountable and Ditch Excuses
Guest Post Written By Lisa of Fromdreamtoplan.net
It is a fact: even the most motivated and driven people have their “not today” days. Yep, even Beyoncé, Oprah, your idol, and that person you keep comparing yourself to and see as “she got everything figured out!”.
The difference between who keeps going no matter what and who gives up, between who actually puts into action those “new year resolutions” versus that person that sees February as “it’s too late to start now….” is: accountability.
Holding yourself accountable to make that resolution really happen is the secret weapon to not turn those “not today” days as the excuse to not make that happen.
Accountability is the key to working towards your goals with ease and flow as you feel so good about the final outcome because you know your hard efforts will certainly lead to it.
So, how does it work?
Ways to Keep Yourself Accountable
Good news is, accountability is something you can train yourself to practice and make part of your routine. There are lots of ways that accountability can be implemented and the most common way is finding someone who can get you to do it. Having a PT, for instance, is a great way to keep yourself accountable to workout and reach your fitness goals. Having accountability buddies is great, it’s such an amazing means to support someone and have that support back.
There are times though, that no matter how much support you receive that accountability has to come from you. And this is often where most people stop, give up and find excuses to not keep going.
Today I want to talk you through 3 ways to be your own accountability buddy and cultivating this secret weapon to success within your actions and your mindset.
Visualise yourself achieving the desired outcome
I have explained properly what visualisation is all about in this article and I strongly recommend you to check it out if you’ve never heard about this technique.
The way you can take advantage of this method to keep yourself accountable, is by visualising yourself accomplishing your goal and trying to reproduce this situation in your head as much in detail as possible. How would it make you feel? Why is this important for you? What will you be proud of once achieving it?
The aim is to make you feel so excited and inspired to achieve that outcome that you want to take action towards it immediately!
Practical Tip: Every morning try to visualise or journal how you imagine yourself at the end of the week/month. What tasks/steps will you have achieved by then that in the long term will help you achieve your final goal? How will you feel about accomplishing these tasks?
Visualisation is something I also consider in my *Free* Mindset Email course, you can subscribe to it here!
Keep track of your daily wins
Whether big or small we accomplish wins e v e r y d a y but very often we don’t keep track of these or even not really value them as relevant. In a journey towards achieving a goal every small step and win counts and puts you one move forward to the final outcome. Taking time to acknowledge and track your progress is such an easy (yet underestimated) way to take awareness on the fact that you are moving forward.
Practical Tip: Start a journal or a note on your phone called “Daily wins tracker” and at the end of each day write down at least 3 things you have accomplished/done/finished/started that make you feel “one step ahead” compared to when you woke up that day. Note: no wins are too small, irrelevant or stupid so don’t overthink it.
Schedule your “Power Hour”
You know how you bring your car for annual checks to see if everything is okay and working properly? Same should be applied to you and your goals!
Checking in regularly with yourself and your goals is such an important thing to do to make sure your actions are still aligned with your goals and, at the same time, that your goals are still aligned with your desires! It’s very easy to move forward in “auto-pilot” mode, especially when we have a fixed routine over time. And this could lead to taking actions and “being busy” with stuff that at the end of the day, don’t make you feel you’ve done any progress.
To make sure you and your goals are aligned, schedule a “power hour” session with yourself weekly/monthly or anytime you feel you need one. The aim is to feel you have “power” over your actions and that they serve a purpose to you and your goals.
Practical Tip: Divide the power hour in two phases.
Phase one: Review you goals following these questions:
Do I feel excited thinking about this goal?
Is this goal right for me right now?
Is the outcome of this goal worth my effort?
If any of the answers to these questions is not a loud “yes” you might want to tweak your goal so it aligns with what you truly want/desire.
Phase two: Review your daily actions/to-do lists towards your goals following these questions:
Is this action seving my final outcome?
What positive effect does implementing this action bring?
Why is this action important?
The goal of this phase is finding value and purpose in every action, small or big, so that you see how doing each of those can help you achieve your desired outcome. And, as a consequence, inspire you to take action!
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You can find more motivational and accountability tips over at Lisa's blog fromdreamtoplan.net and IG page @fromdreamtoplan.
