10. Accountability: The Fast Track to Getting Your Goals

You are listening to The Success Minded Woman with Deidrea Kiesling, episode 10. Today is one of my favorite topics, accountability. Accountability is taking 100% responsibility for your actions and for your results and stay tuned to find out all about how to be accountable to yourself and get your goals.

Hi, I’m Deidrea, wife, and mom to three teenagers, coffee snob, and certified life and business coach. If you’re a high-achieving, goal-oriented woman and you know you were meant for more, then you are a success minded woman and you’re in the right place. I’m here to help you make the money and the impact you’ve been dreaming of, to step into your confidence, create habits and systems to support you, ditch that imposter syndrome, and harness the power of your mind. If you’re ready to create a life and business you love, then let’s go. I’m so glad you’re here.

Today is all about accountability and this is the most important thing in achieving your goals. So up to this point we’ve been talking about setting your goals, planning for your goals, getting yourself into massive action which of course our goals, everything is on the other side of action. But what gets you from your action plan and into action and into consistent action is accountability. Google says the definition of accountability is an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.

Accountability is doing what you say you're going to do. And I know a lot of times for us we are really good at being accountable to other people and less likely to be accountable to ourselves. And accountability really is the fastest way to achieve your goals if you do what you say you will do. So when you think about accountability there’s really three types of accountability. There’s external accountability, internal accountability, and no accountability.

So no accountability is basically you do what you feel like doing when you feel like doing it. And that is a very long way to achieve your goals and you probably won't get there because you won't be in consistent action. So really the two main ones that we’re going to talk about today are external accountability and internal accountability. And I think you need both, but really what you need to understand is how you deal with accountability, how you work with accountability, because accountability is really the fastest way you're going to get to your goals.

So I like to think about which is better for me, is external accountability easier or internal accountability? And I will tell you, I think the goal with accountability is to be working towards being internally accountable, which basically means that you're going to do what you say you're going to do when you say it to yourself, you're going to hold yourself accountable. And that's the strongest kind of accountability because it doesn’t require anyone else. It just requires you doing what you say you're going to do for yourself.

But what that does require of yourself is self-trust, self-integrity, honesty, self-honesty. And can you trust yourself, can you be honest with yourself to do what you say you're going to do? That's the best kind of accountability. I would say that's the goal of accountability, but I don’t think anyone will ever get there totally because other things do come in our life and in our way. And that's why it's so good to have also external accountability, which external accountability is when you do what you say you're going to do for something outside of yourself.

So usually we think about external accountability as a person, like if I tell you I'm going to do this at this time. So if you say to your kid, “I'm going to take you to soccer after school today.” You're being accountable to your kid that you told them that you're going to do what you say you would do. Now, underneath that you're being accountable to yourself because you want to be the type of mother that does what she says she's going to do for her kids. So that’s kind of a combination. But when you’re externally accountable you are doing what you say you will do for other people.

And I know for a lot of us we are really good at that. We’re really good at being accountable to other people, of doing what we say we will do for other people, of honoring our commitments to other people, to other organizations, to other responsibilities that we have in our life, to our employer, to our children, to our church, to volunteer organizations, to our family, to our community. There’s so many areas in our life where we are accountable, people know that they can count on us and we do what we say we’re going to do.

But the problem is we only get what's left after all of that external accountability, what’s left for us, what’s left for what we are going to do for ourselves, what we say we're going to do for ourselves. And that’s where we tend to put ourselves at the bottom of the list. And so when you are really aware of where you are putting your accountability outside of yourself or inside of yourself, that’s where you can use accountability for you. So you can be accountable externally to a person, but you can also be accountable to your scorecard that we talked about last week, something that’s outside of yourself.

So it's not you just sitting within yourself, within your mind, within your thoughts and feelings. There is a scorecard, there is a piece of paper or something on your computer or your phone that you’re updating. It's telling you what you plan to do and then you’re updating it. So you're being accountable by updating that, by updating your tracker, your scorecard, your app, whatever it is. That is a form of being accountable. So I think really everyone needs some form of tracking and measuring as I mentioned in last week's podcast. But there’s also a part of actually being accountable to someone else.

So I think that when you're going after a goal you need an accountability partner. It can be a friend, it could be someone in a group that you’re in, but something that you're going to connect with another person and say, “Here’s what I'm doing this week.” And then you check in with your accountability partner or group and you say, “And here’s what I did. Here’s what got in my way. And here’s where I need help with and here’s where I really need some additional accountability.”

So the thing about external accountability is to know that, if that works for you, if that helps for you to have external accountability, to put some structure in place for yourself around how to create external accountability. And it doesn’t even have to be with someone that you even know or that even knows you. You can actually just say something, you could post something on Facebook. You could text a friend. You could ask for accountability.

I do this all the time because for me I am really good with external accountability. That's what really creates a sense of urgency and responsibility for me to be externally accountable and I know that about myself. And while I’m building the self-trust and the self-discipline to be more internally accountable, I know that I can leverage my abilities in being externally accountable.

And that's where it’s so good for you to understand where you are in the spectrum of accountability from totally internally accountable where 100% the time you do what you say you’re going to do for yourself to being more externally accountable where you let’s say 100% do what you say you're going to do to other people. And then there is that continuum in the middle. And I think we are all more likely to be externally accountable. And just notice where you are. Understand where you are in the accountability scale and then use it to your advantage.

So one of the things that I do is when I need some extra support on something, I will reach out because I know for me that I'm so externally accountable like that, I really do honor my commitments to other people. I will ask someone for help, even this podcast. I asked the podcast producers to help me be accountable and meet my deadline. I was going to do something on Facebook, and I asked my accountability partner to hold me accountable for that. And so I checked in with her at the beginning of the day and said, “I'm going to do this today.” And then she asked me at the end of the day, “Did you do it?”

And so however you can set up those accountability structures I think is so important, especially when you're going after a new goal or you’re creating a new habit. It’s not in place yet. You don't have the reps in yet with that. So creating accountability structures is really such an important way to get your goals and help you develop that sense of honesty and self-trust and self-integrity with yourself. As you build more external accountability it will help you build more internal accountability.

So I love this quote by Bob Proctor, and he says, “Accountability is the glue that bonds commitments to results.” And because that glue is taking what your goals are, what you plan from your vision and your dreams, that commitment that you’ve made to be 100% committed to go all in and go for your dreams, the accountability is what's going to take you into action and then to stay in action because all of our results are going to come from action. So the accountability is really about getting you into action and keeping you into action and that is why we want accountability.

And that is going to be the fastest way to get to your goals is to be accountable and get rock solid in how you have set up accountability for yourself. So figure out what’s going to work for you about accountability. And one of the things that could be a struggle is if you don't want to tell other people what your goals are. And just think about that. If you don't want to tell someone, and I'm not saying you have to tell everyone.

But you might want to tell someone, a coach, an accountability partner, someone, some other human that has a connection with you that's going to help you be accountable to your goals and really be accountable to yourself because you’ve set this goal to bring your dream into reality. And so you want to be accountable. You want to have accountability, to get your goals, to be consistent in your actions. So figure out what kind of accountability is going to work best for you. I have little bits and pieces of accountability all over the place.

Sometimes I’ll post something on Facebook to say, “Hey, I’m going to do this, this week.” And I know that I'm going to do it because I said I was going to do it on Facebook. I met someone in a Facebook group that we were in together and we were messaging about doing something in our business. And so I just say, “Hey, can I send you a message and ask for some help in accountability?” And she said, “Sure.” So I have this one message thread going with this one woman on something very specific that I’m working on my business. And she is helping me be accountable.

So you can just set up all these little bits and pieces of accountability, whatever will help you. I really like the scorecard, something that’s outside of you like I said for tracking and assessing. I also have a habit tracker that I track every day in my bathroom too for all the habits that I want. So there’s all these different things that you want to think about that you need accountability for. It could be your routines, it could be your habits. Of course it's going to be your action items around your goals but figure out all the pieces of what you're going to need accountability for. And put those accountability structures in place with the ultimate goal of being internally accountable.

And what that means is that you are going to do what you say you're going to do to yourself, having self-integrity, having self-trust and that requires discipline. It requires willingness to do things when you don't want to do them. It requires you to have consistency in following through on your plan. And while we're on our way to self-integrity and discipline and willingness, the scorecard, the external accountability, the checklist, the trackers, all of that that gives you visual and dialogue with other people around your goals and your actions is such a key piece to following through on your actions, to taking massive action, to getting the goals that you want.

So I really encourage you to think about what kind of accountability works best for you, think about when you are really good at getting something done, why is that, what are you thinking? Are you thinking, I told this person I'm going to do it, so I’m going to do it? Are you thinking, maybe if you're in a job, maybe you just, you always do what you say you're going to do for your clients or for your boss or for your teammate. Just think about where in your life are you just by default, accountable. If you’re a parent it's usually with your children.

But just think about all the different ways in your life where you’re accountable and then why that is. And then look at, with your personal goals, where you are accountable to yourself or where you’re lacking accountability. And then just really explore why that is. It might be that you don't block time in your calendar for the things that you say you're going to do for yourself. It might be that you don't have a solid foundation of habits and systems and processes in your personal life to support you to be accountable to yourself.

So I love having both, obviously internal accountability, external accountability and like I said, you can have all different kinds of external accountability. But I also just really love having an accountability partner or being in an accountability group where you are going to show up weekly and just review your scorecard and with another human. I think that’s so powerful to do it with another human or maybe a small group for an accountability. But when you are accountable to someone else or a few people in a group it helps you with creating the energy and the momentum.

And it also helps you get the support that you need to keep going. And knowing that you’re going to connect with another human once a week, builds in the accountability every day. Because you know you're going to show up to that weekly accountability meeting and review your scorecard and talk about what worked and talk about what didn’t work and talk about what you can do differently.

And when you're showing up to another person in an accountability group or with an accountability partner, you’re going to mastermind with that other person. So you're not only going to get your information and your ideas about how to improve or how to put more structure accountability in place. But that other person or that other group is going to help you too. So you’re going to get more than just your own brain working on your goals and your accountability.

So I think that that is so important is to have a person, accountability partner or an accountability group or something that will help you stay on track, figure out what’s working, fix what’s not working, improve your process and to continue to go towards your goals.

So I really encourage you to take a look at what accountability works best for you and knowing that this is all on a road to developing more and more self-integrity, of being responsible to ourselves, of what we’re going to do for ourselves. But on the way to that there's all these other ways that you can develop accountability using external methods of a scorecard, of a tracker, of accountability partner, an accountability group and it doesn't have to be in person. It can be online, it could be through messaging. My accountability partner and I, we text message every day and we meet every Friday.

So you can figure out a structure that works for you, but I highly encourage you to put some kind of accountability structure in place for you, for your goals, for your action plan, for your scorecard so that you can stay on track. So that’s what I have for you today. I really hope that you will take some time to figure out how you can incorporate some accountability and tracking for your goals. Alright, talk to you all next week. Bye.

To celebrate the launch of the podcast we have been doing an Amazon card giveaway for our lucky listeners that rated and reviewed the podcast. So I’m happy to announce the five winners of a $100 Amazon gift card. So thank you so much for everyone rating and reviewing and listening. This has been a dream of mine to have this podcast and I'm so grateful that you're here, that you're listening, that you’re supporting. And thanks for all the encouragement, the messages, the emails. I just appreciate it so much and I am so glad that you're here. And I’m just looking so forward to continuing to deliver this to you and thank you all so much for your support.

So here are the lucky listeners. Jennifer, Tiffany, Monica, Bonnie, and Joy. So I will be sending you all an Amazon gift card. So it’s coming to your inbox soon. Alright, thanks again everyone for all of your support and helping me celebrate 10 episodes.

If you love what you’re learning here on the podcast, and you want to start implementing these concepts into your daily life then you must get my free course where I will teach you how to get 10 hours back a week. Imagine what you could create with 10 more hours a week. So go to thedreamacademy.com/freecourse and learn about the magic wand of time. Thanks for listening. Bye.