Accountability is Crucial for Self Discipline
Without accountability, you’ll struggle immensely if you want to promote self discipline and get things done.
Accountability.
What?
Accountability is the acceptance of responsibility for actions, either yours or those of somebody else’s
Accountability is when you act, and you take full responsibility for those actions.
Lack Of Accountability
Many us act but lack a sense of accountability.
We try and blame somebody else or pretend that we did act in the way we did, but this serves only to harm us, not help us.
We primarily shy away from blame and accountability: it’s our instinct.
Many of us do not like to face what we have done, we don’t want the responsibility.
Potentially due to fear, for full responsibility of actions is a pretty scary thing, especially if you are not acting in the way you wish you were.
Yet in regards to growth, it is necessary.
Accountability Is Necessary
You need to take accountability for your actions. You need to prioritise responsibility and blame.
Why?
Having accountability shifts the blame to you and you only; there’s no avoiding what you did.
This internal blame can be a great shift in regards to action.
If you only have yourself to blame for something, why would you act in a harmful or negative way? Why would you act in a way that is detrimental to your goals if you know that it’s your own fault?
Instead of carrying on in such a way, you become more inclined to shift your actions and attitude, for the better.
Avoidance
Knowing that something is down to you, and only you, is an extremely uncomfortable feeling, one that we all strive to avoid.
We dislike discomfort, and so are more inclined to avoid actions that bring it. Accountability brings discomfort.
However, it is well known that discomfort provokes immense growth.
Self Discipline
What?
Self discipline is the ability to push yourself forward, stay motivated, and take action, regardless of how you’re feeling, physically or emotionally.
Self discipline, in other words, is getting yourself up and doing the work when you don’t want to.
Be Your Own Motivator
When motivation is low and the only thing you want to do is to stay in bed and watch netflix; those are the times that require self discipline.
You have to be your own biggest motivator, and you have to push yourself forward.
This is important to note, although it is a harsh truth: nobody is going to do the work for you.
You have to get it done. You have to be disciplined. This is your future.
Regardless Of Emotions
Self discipline regardless of how you feel is also an important point.
You have to have the power to get up and work no matter how you feel.
You cannot fall victim to your momentary emotions. You have to selectively ignore the short term emotions, the short term distractors.
A Slave To Your Emotions
In many cases, you may, consciously or not, act as a slave to your emotions.
You may procrastinate or put things off simply because you ‘don’t feel like it’
In this, you let the short term emotion get in the way of long term progress, and you become a victim of your emotions.
All this does is sacrifice your future self for a short term bout of pleasure, pleased that is short lasting and more harmful than it is worth.
Self discipline is the ability to push past those temptations and urges, those pesky emotions, and to stick with something.
It could be writing an article, sticking to a diet, studying for OSCE exams, anything.
It all requires a little, if not a lot, of self discipline.
Accountability and Self Discipline Together
They may seem like two very different ideas, but in fact, the two go hand in hand!
Accountability complements self discipline, and as you become more disciplined, you gain a stronger sense of accountability.
Sense of Responsibility
When you build your discipline, you need first a sense of accountability; you must be willing to take responsibility for both your failures and your wins. There’s no time to shy away or shift the blame.
Yet, with this accountability, you can become responsible for your actions. The responsibility makes you more inclined to stick with things and push through, and so, you build discipline.
You become responsible for skipping workouts or partying when you should be working. You become responsible for any action you take that harms your future self.
You also become responsible for the good actions you take to benefit your future self and reach your goals! When you make the healthy food choice, you’re casting a vote for your future self, and you have that responsibility.
Knowing that you are to blame for good things and bad things is immensely powerful.
It makes you more inclined to do the good thing, to avoid that negative feeling of blame.
Why Does Accountability and Self Discipline Work?
A Plant
Take this example; a plant.
Someone may have a small plant on their desk, and they treat it with great care. They know to water it, let it bask in the sun, maybe even give it a little name and a backstory.
That person knows that the survival of their plant is in their hands, it is fully their responsibility.
They know that if they stopped watering it, it would likely die, and the death would be a pretty tragic event.
This moral burden, this responsibility for a life, will likely drive the person on to keep watering it, to keep taking good care of the plant.
And they will do this regardless of how they feel or what type of day they have had, they will still take care of the plant. They both love the plant, and do not want to deal with the death of the plant, so they water it.
This act of taking care of the plant is the discipline in action!
The sense of accountability of the plant encourages the person to take care of it, regardless of how they feel. That, also, is discipline.
Visual Accountability — Make It Known
When you are trying to build self discipline, try incorporate something, or someone to be accountable for.
The best way to do this is to make it known; make whatever goal you are trying to hit known and visible to those around you.
To make it known, you could post about it on social media, tell a friend about it, or use a habit tracker perhaps.
These are all very visible and very acceptable reminders; you can see habit trackers, and you can have conversations with your friends or social media followers about it.
When you share it with a friend, for example, you have a sense of accountability. You wouldn’t want to disappoint your friend by telling them that you have made no progress on your goal, so you put the work in anyway, to show them what you are capable of!
Through having something to be accountable for, having a duty bound obligation, you’ll push through, regardless of how you feel.
The experience of letting someone down or not meeting the goal is always worse than actually putting the work in, and having visible accountability makes this pain prevail.
In Conclusion
Pair accountability and self discipline together, and you’ll be near unstoppable.
