Management Thinker Peter Drucker says: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” I agree that you can’t know how successful you are unless you define and track what success looks like for you.
Accountability is a Powerful Thing
Do you track your achievements?
- Maybe you keep a spreadsheet of your successes at work ready for appraisal time?
- Or perhaps you are monitoring the number of footsteps that you take each day in order to keep yourself physical fit?
- Or are you are tracking the number of hours you are spending on social media and seeing how that impacts your productivity and outcomes?
If you are, that decision to track and measure, increases your success rate by 33% according to research conducted by Psychology Professor Gail Matthews.
If not, where do you start?
Here are my 5 steps to naming your number and nailing accountability:
1. Be specific, name your number
One of the top reasons that people don’t achieve their goals is because they aren’t specific enough. For example, instead of “I will spend time looking for a new job” try “I will spend 15 minutes each lunchtime looking at recruitment websites and searching on social media for new jobs.”
If you commit to how and when you’ll do something you are more likely to hold yourself accountable and to follow it through. Plus, you get that added bonus of ticking off that you’ve achieved what you said you would, which is a real catalyst to do it some more.
2. Push yourself, you should feel butterflies
Push yourself, you should feel a little nervous, maybe a few butterflies in your stomach about the target that you set yourself. However, it shouldn’t feel so daunting that it deters you from even starting. We need the optimal level of stress to motivate us in the first place, if it’s too easy we won’t bother.
3. Make a public commitment
Sharing your number or target with a coach, colleague or friend who will ask you about it is a major factor in keeping you on track. We find it easy to go back on promises to ourselves but not to others. Or use an app such as LifeTick or Goals on Track.
4. Remember Why you’re doing it
When you are lacking motivation try thinking about why you’re doing what you’re doing. How will achieving it help you to live your values more fully and be the best version of yourself? What difference will it make for you, your partner or your family? When you are doubting yourself or procrastinating this will give you the boost you need to keep going.
5. Build in rewards
As you plan the steps to achieving your number, build in rewards along the way. Little pitstops in which you can take a moment to savour how far you’ve come and treat yourself.
This will provide you with a motivation boost to keep the momentum going.
Some further resources that will help:
Resources to help you develop Accountability
5 Top tips to developing accountability
Top Inspirational Quotes on Accountability
Online Programmes to help you step out of your comfort zone and develop accountability
Goal Setting Pre-recorded Webinar:
Do you find yourself setting the same goals year after year? I’ll share with you three proven strategies to help you develop the right goals and make sure you achieve them. Learn why your goals haven’t been achieved in the past, how to deal with setbacks and why purpose and planning are interconnected.
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