Anyone who tried to achieve something has likely felt a terrible slump somewhere down the road. As the initial motivation burns away, you find yourself needing incredible willpower to want to continue working on these goals and fighting your way past challenges. Holding yourself accountable becomes more and more complex the longer you find yourself without inspiration–accountability matters!
This is why it’s essential to maintain personal responsibility for your goals and tasks in life. Without that accountability, it’s easy to give up, lose discipline, or do sub-par work that leaves you unsatisfied and discouraged to work further. It’s how many dreams, and goals die out long before they’ve even truly begun!
It’s often difficult to stick to goals and tasks. The negative stigma against occasional failure has made us feel almost ashamed of needing help to maintain personal responsibility. But you don’t need to feel embarrassed about utilizing intelligent methods to keep yourself going! Here are four ways to be more accountable.
How To Be More Accountable for Your Actions and Be Successful?
1. Set Micro-Goals
Goals don’t have to be big, lofty things. In a vast majority of cases, it’s wisest to break your big, long-term goals down into smaller goals. These goals are like stepping stones slowly leading you where you want to go.
Smaller goals are less intimidating and are often more actionable, as they’re specific and easier to think of how to work toward. Instead of thinking that you’ll achieve a big goal one day, you’ll have goals in front of you that you can fulfill shortly. Many people set annual, five-year, and ten-year goals, but you can add more, such as yearly or monthly goals.
When making goals of any size, make sure you’re following the research-backed SMART strategy:
Specific
The more specific a goal, the better it is to hold yourself accountable. For example, if you say, “I want to read more books this month,” you’re opening up a lot of wiggle room for excuses. You might read just one extra book, or you might end up struggling to fit books into your schedule at all. A better, more specific goal is “I want to read three books this month. I will set aside two hours each Saturday and Sunday to dedicate to reading.” This means you know three books are a must-do, and you have an excellent way to make that happen.
Measurable
Abstract goals sound nice in concept, but they’re terrible at holding you accountable. To ensure that you’re meeting your goals, you have to be able to measure them in some way. Saying “I want to be more grateful” doesn’t give you any way to measure that gratitude, leaving it open to interpretation. A better goal is “I will keep a daily gratitude journal where I list three things I’m grateful for each night. I will also say ‘thank you to at least ten people daily.”
Achievable
It’s great to have big dreams, but they must be authentic if you want to be more accountable. Goals should challenge you, but they shouldn’t be impossible, and they shouldn’t end with you burning out to make it there barely. Unachievable goals will only discourage you, potentially causing you to abandon your journey.
Relevant
Smaller goals should be a lead-up to your bigger goals. That means they have to be relevant to them. As you set goals, ask yourself how your smaller goals are helping you to move towards the bigger …
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