Not Easy But Necessary
Hey Beautiful People!
I hope you’ve started your week with a spirit of excellence and gratitude. Over the years, I’ve had to make several adjustments to embrace accountability and I’m sure you’ve experienced the same. We can all agree that our relationship with accountability is one to nurture and maintain although some of us may not know exactly how to do just that. Accountability is the parent to discipline and we all know we gotta get in good with the parents if we want to have a positive, supportive and fruitful relationship. Let’s take some time and really break down exactly what accountability means.
One definition says, “the fact or condition of being held accountable; responsibility.” Another definition says, “accepting responsibility which can be personal or very public”. It further states, “a government has accountability for decisions and laws affecting its citizens; an individual has accountability for acts and behaviors. Sometimes, though, taking accountability means admitting you made a mistake.”
When we discuss accountability sometimes it’s an uncomfortable conversation because we have to be transparent about whether we’re doing a good job or not. Accountability is the key difference between success and failure. Without accountability, how do we experience sustainable growth?
Now let’s face it...some of us hate accountability because it means we have to take ownership of our decisions. Meaning only you can take fault for your failures or credit for your successes. Many of us want the praise but fear taking the blame or feeling disappointed so you chose not to hold yourself accountable. Since you’re the only one that knows...no big deal right?
Absolutely wrong.
We can not create a culture of convincing ourselves that’s it’s ok that I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. I’m sure we’ve fallen short on accountability a time or two but developing that level of avoidance and denial leads to negative, uncomfortable circumstances. Let’s look at Exhibit A-Z: America’s law enforcement, your local police department. The lack of accountability and transparency has resulted in a staggering amount of senseless charges, sentences, and deaths of black people. It’s resulted in broken families and households and the utmost distrust between the police and the communities they serve.
Ask yourself what’s the reason I choose to or not to do things? I guarantee you it’s all connected to your perception of the consequence or reward. Let’s use this opportunity to learn from the empty-hearted murderer of George Floyd to understand this concept a bit better. ( I’m so happy to hear all the 3 officers were found guilty on all federal charges.)
If you’ve seen the video and witnessed the crime, you can see in that officer’s eyes that he had no fear of the consequences of deliberately killing George Floyd. He had his knee on this black man’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds as if there were no consequences for his actions of deadly force.
Now back to you.
Let’s not allow our life’s conditions to get extremely worse, i.e. police brutality, before deciding to implement accountability for our actions and taking ownership of our decisions.
Are you creating consequences and rewards for yourself? It’s necessary to set yourself up for success every single day. If you set a goal, actually scratch that, if you’ve set a new standard for yourself that you want to maintain a healthy diet for example and you decide to eat pizza and pasta for 3 days straight. That’s unacceptable; you are in complete violation of the law that you created for yourself. That’s why it’s so important to understand why we do what we do and why we set the goals that we set. Identify beyond yourself who will benefit or suffer from the decision that I’m making. That’s how you develop self-accountability. You have to create a consistent strategy of how accountability is going to be implemented in your daily life.
Block out times for reality checks and set yourself up for success. Be real about the expectations you set for yourself. I need you from today moving forward to:
Adopt a growth mindset - that’s waking up every day with the intention to make progress not striving for perfection. #DoneNotPerfect
Create your definition of success for the day - that’s picking that one task that’s going to help build momentum towards achieving that bigger goal. Everything else you complete after that task is considered extra points on the scoreboard.
Lastly set up your reward and consequence - for greater impact it needs to be something that creates immediate gratification or discomfort.
Pivoting back to my policing analogy
You can’t tell me if police officers woke up every day with a servant mindset, and where their Chief of Police set their definition of success to avoid the use of force as much as possible with the consequence of a decrease in their pension or immediate termination, we wouldn’t save more black lives!
It all boils down to leadership and the culture or spirit projected on ourselves and others. Let’s develop a positive relationship towards accountability. Let’s develop a culture where accountability is appreciated and delivered with love and grace. In order to grow and build momentum towards becoming the next best version of ourselves, we have to take ownership of our decisions and not wait for someone else to call us out when we fall short.
I appreciate you for holding yourself accountable and reading the entirety of this blog post. You are clearly seeking growth and change and I challenge you to share this message with a friend. Remember to always make your legacy your priority today.
With love and grace,
Precious Azurée
