The Accountability Perspective

Some days you just get fed up, sick of what is happening in your life and all the things that are not going quite to plan.

You get disheartened.

Disappointed.

Frustrated.

Angry at your circumstances, your close family and friends, but mostly at yourself.

Then you start to BLAME.

You blame everyone else for what has happened, the weather, the boss's favoritism, anything you can think of at the time.

You blame anything and everything, except concentrate on the ONE person who you should focus on.

YOU !!

Now notice I said FOCUS, not blame, because blame will NEVER get you the results you want.

Think about it for a moment, when you blame anyone or anything what result do you get ?

It is always a NEGATIVE result. You blame the other person for getting "that job", "that park", you blame the "rich" for you not getting anywhere.

What happens ?

Sure, you may feel a momentary sense of vindication and validation, fleeting as it is.

Honestly, what do you get out of blaming anything (including yourself ) for any situation ?

NOTHING.

Nothing changes, at least not for the better.

EVER.

As long as you keep a blame mentality you will never improve the circumstance or situation.

Worse still, it won't be just THAT situation.

Your life will continue on in the same trajectory of "almost success" if you will.

Nobody remembers their "almost success" fondly.

 You will continue to point the metaphorical finger to everyone you know as though that will solve the problems.


HOW do I know that will happen ?


I have been GUILTY of this so MANY times, it has been my default response for so long.


But more importantly WHY will that happen ?

Again, personal experience.

Years of personal failures with the blame response as a go to that have always resulted in the same outcome.

More negative experiences and repeated " almost success".

HOWEVER, this has not been the case lately and I am going to tell you my secret.

Spoiler alert, it's not a secret but we all forget this very important trick at some stage in our life.

It's not a massive change and it isn't expensive or impossibly difficult to implement, sure it takes work but anything worthwhile involves some degree of difficulty and discomfort in order that we grow.


One little word which changed the course of my life , just one immensely powerful word.

Once you practice this you will find that there is no obstacle and no set back that is outside YOUR control.



ACCOUNTABILITY.


"Ahhhhh" you say, "But I am not always responsible for what happens to me in life?"

No, you are not always responsible and, you know what, sometimes shit happens to the best people.


BUT , it is WHAT you DO.

How you RESPOND.


That's what MATTERS.

You KNOW that.

That is the key and will determine whether you turn a crap situation into a win.


For instance, I will give you one scenario and then demonstrate the different responses that a the blame versus accountability mindset will result in.

SCENARIO:

You have been busting your butt working on a project at work,YOU have been putting long hours in, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to get contact's and make the project come together ahead of schedule.


It's MEANT to be your manager's project but you find yourself shouldering the majority of the work, heck let's be honest, all of it is done by you.

The manager in question has lumped it all on your desk and offered the juicy carrot of :

"do well in this and I will make sure Upper Management know your potential".

Typical Right ??


The big day arrives, you are ready to show off the project presentation to Upper Management and suddenly you find that your Manager is more than willing too help.

In fact, so willing, that your Manager runs the presentation for you !!

You are relegated to operating the slide show like some 10 year old kid at show and tell.

The presentation is a massive hit, the bosses LOVE it and immediately give it the green light.

You watch with anger as your manager heads off to lunch with the Upper management, all the while getting loudly praised for his "exceptional work".

The Manager heads off to YOUR lunch, the spoils of YOUR work.


MEANWHILE, you are over there packing up the equipment like some busboy.


You are FUMING.



So, that's the scenario. We have all been there, or a variation thereof.

Now watch how your PERSPECTIVE can radically change how your life plays out.

BLAME:

You are furious, you stew on it and blame the Manager for taking all of "your" credit.


The next time you see them you refuse to acknowledge them and you are grumpy for weeks over this "betrayal".

You refuse to take on new projects and in a few months are let go, as in the words of the HR "you are not a good team player".

ACCOUNTABILITY:

You are ANGRY and HURT that your manager would take the credit so deceitfully for your work.

However, you DECIDE you will be control how you RESPOND to what has happened.


You acknowledge that the project and presentation was a success.

You acknowledge you learnt plenty of skills and new contacts along the way.

You realize you cannot be ACCOUNTABLE for the manager's actions, only your own.


And your OWN action's in this project were OUTSTANDING !


YOU kicked Butt, you got out there and did WAY more than you thought you could.

You vow to get involved in MORE projects in the future, KNOWING you can do it and acknowledging you will learn even MORE valuable skills.

Your Manager comes back from the lunch, you congratulate them on the successful project.

You also offer to assist more in the future, knowing it will help you grow.




PERSPECTIVE MATTERS !!!

I cannot stress that enough, having an accountability perspective is so important.


See how your perspective changes the WHOLE outcome.

I am not saying this is easy, and in the moment our emotions are often very hard to tame when you first start to adopt this process.

I am by no means a master of this,I constantly have to work on it.

However by constantly being ACCOUNTABLE for what is happening in your life you will take back CONTROL.


Nobody wants to live not reaching their goals.

When you make yourself accountable for any circumstance you WILL keep working.

Working towards reaching what you will feel personally RESPONSIBLE in attaining.



NOTHING will stop you with that mindset of personal accountability.



A blame mindset just gives you the easy out of saying " I could not have changed that".

It does not ALLOW you to LEARN and GROW.


Change your perspective to one of ACCOUNTABILITY today.

You will quickly see how much better your life can be, it is not easy but you will not regret it .

:)

LockyJ