You are an adult now. You are responsible for your own life.
There is no one to check on your progress and make sure that you are on track.
When you were a child your freedom was limited. Your parents, teachers, and loved ones restricted your screen time and made sure you did the homework so that you could become a decent adult.
Now you have the freedom that you craved for so much when you were a child. No one to check on or control you except yourself.
You have to step up to be the one who keeps yourself on check.
This is exactly why self accountability matters.
It’s about being honest with yourself by keeping up the promises you make to yourself.
Self accountability is an important step towards living an integral, worthy life.
You don’t want all that freedom to be the reason for living a life by making all the wrong choices.
Why You Should Be Self Accountable
1. Being self accountable builds trust in yourself
Every time you keep up a promise you made to yourself, you prove that you can rely on yourself.
You start seeing yourself as a person of integrity. You will start respecting yourself.
This internal shift is the foundation for self-belief and being a confident person.
2. Being self accountable breaks the cycle of excuses
When you were a child you were held accountable by your parents and teachers. Unless you had valid reasons, you couldn’t skip going to school or skip doing your homework.
Now you are a grown up. An adult.
Maybe you have a manager who checks on you to get the work done. Since you are answerable to someone and you need the salary, you will get the project done by the deadline.
What about your personal life?
You are responsible for your own life. Nobody will be there to monitor you every day to make sure you do the things that are required to become a better person.
So you start giving excuses to yourself.
“I will start tomorrow.” “I don’t feel like doing it.” “I didn’t have time.”
The moment you make yourself your mentor, your cheerleader, your accountability partner, and encourage yourself to be honest with yourself, you will stop making excuses.
You will admit the truth, and this is powerful.
You will start seeing the patterns you make, the excuses you give, and finally be able to stand up to yourself.
3. Being self accountable gives you back your power
When you become self-accountable you become the person in charge of yourself.
Your mindset shifts from “life is happening to me” to “life is happening through me.”
Even in tough seasons of life, this attitude of self-accountability gives you back your power.
You will be able to stop being a victim of what is happening to you.
Your life will be in your control again.
You will rise above your situations, stop giving yourself excuses, and start doing things that matter even when nobody believes in you or your dreams and goals.
4. Being self accountable stops you from making the same mistakes
When you were a child, if you kept making the same mistakes, your teacher or parents would have corrected them for you. Because as a child, you couldn’t take care of yourself — you didn’t know what was right and wrong.
Since they were accountable for your safety and making sure you became a responsible adult, they corrected your mistakes.
When you become an adult, no one will keep a check on you on a micro level as they did when you were a child. So, there is no one to correct you when you make mistakes.
Once you become self accountable, you will start seeing the mistakes that you are making.
You will become self aware and this helps you stop repeating these mistakes.
5 Ways to Be Self Accountable
1. Set one clear, non negotiable daily promise
All of us make the same mistake. We underestimate the power of small, tiny actions.
Let’s say you are someone who has never taken charge of your own life. You have never proved to yourself that you are reliable or disciplined.
Beginning from zero.
Let’s make this super easy.
Decide on one single thing you will do every single day.
Not 10 tasks. Not a full routine.
One simple, ridiculously easy task.
You could choose from the following:
- Make your bed
- Complete this sentence: “Today I am feeling ——”
- Drink water immediately after you wake up
- Take stairs instead of the elevator
- Take 5 deep breaths in the morning
Promise yourself you will follow through with this for 30 days.
When you consistently keep promises, you will start seeing yourself as a reliable person. Your identity shifts.
Related Post: Are you in survival mode? Then regular goals might be too much for you. Here are 9 Easy Goals for People Who Are Tired and Burned Out. Make one among this the non negotiable daily promise.
2. Track your actions
Seeing your progress visually helps you stay motivated. Motivation comes only after you begin, after you take the first few steps.
How can you track your progress?
A habit tracker is the best option.
You could do this 2 ways — download a habit tracker app or keep a physical one by your side.
A streak will build up every time you finish a task. And that is the visual proof that you are a person who keeps up the promise made to oneself.
On the days you missed doing the task, try to answer this question: Why did I miss today?
This will help you identify patterns, the mistakes you are repeating.
3. Build a system
This sounds so complicated, right?
It is not that difficult.
Let’s say the one task you want to do is make your bed.
One thing you can do is set a reminder in your habit tracker app. This simple notification will help you stay in check.
Also, you could place a post-it note on your mirror as a reminder.
These are simple ways to make your environment support your goals.
4. Review your week
Spend just 15 minutes on weekends to review what you did.
Check how many days you missed, and what the reason was.
If you did well, appreciate yourself for this.
Making your bed or writing a one-sentence journal might feel insignificant. But it’s not.
So, if you did well, show yourself some love. Go on a solo date to celebrate the fact that you took the first step to becoming a better version of yourself.
This simple ritual will help you identify your patterns. Also, appreciate yourself for being self-accountable.
And this prevents you from drifting and going back to your old self.
5. Forgive fast, restart faster
Being self-accountable doesn’t mean that you become your worst critic.
Suppose you miss one day. Most probably you will start thinking like this — “See, you can’t do anything right. Making your bed is such a simple thing and you couldn’t even do that.”
Being self-accountable means:
- You decide to do a task
- Track the progress
- You notice when you fall
- You understand what went wrong
- Make the necessary changes and move forward
Don’t let your perfectionism be the reason you start overly criticizing yourself.
Self criticism keeps you stuck.
Forgiving yourself keeps you moving.
Let self-accountability be the reason you keep going, not the reason you stop.
Conclusion
Being self accountable is going to be your superpower.
You will not need motivation to get started.
Even if you are alone in life, or nobody believes in you or your dreams, or when life becomes hard, you will move forward.
Because being self accountable means you are your biggest cheerleader, mentor, and best friend.
And that will help you move forward.
You will start respecting yourself and loving yourself.
Once you prove yourself that your are reliable, you can start adding more habits and eventually build up a successful morning routine or night routine.
Start small, build the proof and scale.
You might also like:
➡️How to Finally Stay Consistent (Even If You’ve Failed 100 Times Before)
➡️10 Signs You Are on the Right Path (Even If You’re Not Feeling It)
➡️How to Choose Goals You’ll Actually Achieve (and Enjoy)
➡️10 Powerful Life Lessons I Learned Through Tough Seasons
➡️7 Powerful Mindsets That Will Change Your Life
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