Avoid playing the victims through the power of personal accountability.
Practicing accountability in life is an important step in becoming successful in all aspects of your life.
Simply put, to hold oneself accountable means to own one's feelings, and take responsibility for one's contribution to one's life circumstances. It helps us avoid playing the victim and ultimately helps us grow into more confident, self-aware, responsible, and trustworthy adult and professional.
Take look below to learn how personal accountability impacts and improves different areas of your life, and 10 behaviors to practice to maintain personal accountability.
For Your Personal Growth
Personal growth is about developing your identity and being accountable to yourself. By showing personal accountability, you will own up to your mistakes and appropriately reward yourself for your achievements. This will also help you grow in integrity and reliability. You will also indicate that you'll own up to your mistakes, and your coworkers and friends will appreciate that you find a more constructive way to resolve problems that arise.
For Your Relationships
Accountability is more than ownership to oneself - it also requires you to explain yourself to others. Relationships are a big part of our day-to-day lives - from partners to parents to children to coworkers, to teammates. So, in addition to self-accountability, being accountable also means you are willing and able to give an honest account of your conduct to those who ask you.
In relationships, this looks like acknowledging the impact your behaviors have owning how you contribute to the negative cycle and outcomes. Practicing personal accountability in relationships requires you to understand what actions you can take to improve the situation instead of blaming someone else solely for the outcome.
For Professional Growth
Saying one thing, and doing another, is a warning sign that you are not good at practicing personal accountability. In the workplace, it is unprofessional and compromises trust and reliability with your peers and managers. Lack of personal responsibility breeds missed deadlines, broken promises, and recycled excuses for non-performance - a red flag for employers and ultimately an impediment to your professional growth.
10 Behaviors that Can Help You Demonstrate Personal Accountability
It can be challenging to practice personal accountability, but it is worth developing it as a skill. Try to practice the below behaviors to become more accountable for your actions, choices, and behaviors.
Only commit if you can complete.
Be sure to understand your role, expectations, and duties in any situation.
Practice honesty with everyone (especially yourself)
Manage your time wisely.
Know your capacity to perform and limits.
Solicit feedback from peers, friends, and family regarding your strengths and weaknesses.
When wrong, be quick to apologize and make a plan to avoid the mistake in the future.
Use constructive criticism to make constructive changes.
Be outcome driven
Review your accomplishments and areas of improvement on a regular basis. Try finding a coach or mentor to help with this.
Personal accountability is a powerful skill to set you up for success. It impacts your work ethic, relationships, and achieving personal goals.
How do you accept accountability?
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