Reasons Why You Struggle To Hold Yourself Accountable?
Accountability is intrinsic to personal growth and success. It is the ability to take responsibility for your actions and decisions without making excuses or shifting goal posts. Being accountable is not about committing to carry everyone’s burden, but it involves defining your roles and executing them objectively. It is about doing what you can, with what you have in the right environment, in order to achieve your goals.
However, many people find it difficult to hold themselves accountable. This often leads to unrealized goals and abandoned dreams. This article will share various reasons why you struggle to hold yourself accountable. In addition, it will provide strategies that you can utilize to get the better of these hurdles.
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Factors that make You struggle to Achieve Accountability
1. Fear of the Unknown
When you cuddle yourself into your comfort zone you will fail to explore the realities of the world. Things are good when you are in your familiar territory and you will always be comfortable with the status quo. But you must understand that change is inevitable and you must step into unfamiliar territories for your personal growth and success.
2. Past Failures
Many people fear to make themselves accountable because of the failures they had in the past and think it might recur again. Once you begin looking at your past failures then you will automatically refrain from taking a step forward. You will be keeping your cards closer to the chest and this may hinder you from achieving your goals.
3. No clear Goals
With no clear goals there will be no expectations. Goals are there to direct your focus on the vision you have laid down for yourself. If there are no clear goals, then it will be one step forward and two backwards. You will do anything and everything because you want forthright success.
4. Lack of Self discipline
With no self discipline, it means you will be non committal on your promises including being accountable for your actions. This will be a drawback on your part as you will always struggle to be accountable.
5. Toxic work Environment
When you find yourself in an unsupportive work environment, you will tend to suppress your talents and abilities because of the toxicity. The workplace should be an environment where you put your abilities to test, it should be where you are challenged to improve yourself and on your skills.
6. Trying to please Everyone
Not every challenge that comes your way deserves your attention, some battles are not worth fighting. Even if you want to help, not everyone will appreciate your efforts and you will never solve all the problems in the world. In whatever you do, make yourself happy first before trying to make others happy. And not everyone deserves your empathy.
7. Unable to control Distractions
Accountability involves ability to ward off any external and internal pressure that might distract you from completing your tasks or activities. When you become unable to control distractions, you will loose focus on the task at hand.
8. Perfectionism
If you really want to hold yourself accountable, then you must be willing to experience certain level of discomforts because of the mistakes you make. But by trying to be a perfectionist, you will not lower your guard because you fear to fail or make a mistake. You don’t want to deal with the criticism that will arise because of your shortcomings. But failing is a learning process.
9. Lack of Feedback
Feedback helps you to know if you are on the right track. When others make their observations, comments and feedback known to you, it helps in shaping your thoughts and actions, and also taking corrective measures where you have failed.
10. No clear defined Responsibilities
When you are not sure about what you have to do or what you want to achieve then it makes it difficult for you to perform your tasks. Lack of clarity on specific roles and tasks you must undertake prevents you from taking any accountability for the consequences of your actions. Without clear defined roles, everything is haywire.
Strategies to overcome the struggle of Accountability
1. Establish a strong support System
A strong support system means the people around you and also the policies and laws that guide you when performing your tasks. Norms will tell you what to do and what ought no to do. If the laws are weak then you will struggle to achieve accountability to no avail. Before undertaking any task, understand the laws governing it.
2. Set clear Goals
Having no goals means fighting a battle blindly. Have a vision in your life and set goals to achieve it. Goals help to direct your steps and your vision helps you to reach your destination. Set clear goals that will connect you to your destiny. The goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART).
3. Prioritize Self care
Always know that you cannot solve all the problems in the world so choose your battles wisely. Do what you are capable of and that which you don’t have to struggle to succeed. In everything you do, prioritize yourself; your emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. Self care ensures that you are still available tomorrow to fight the next battle.
4. Let Failures be lessons and not Hitches
No everyone succeeds the first time but that is not the end of the world. When you try and fail, do it the second time because you now have the experience. Any failure should not make you abandon your idea but make you eager to try again, for a thousand ways you may fail but you need only one way to succeed.
5. Improve your Emotional Stability
Anything that shakes your emotions negatively you have to leave it. Work on doing things which enhance your emotional intelligence. Enlighten your live by doing things which brings positivity in your life, leave out those which bring negativity. One way of improving your emotions is walking away from toxicity.
6. Seek Help
You cannot do everything alone, no success can be achieved in isolation. Learn to seek assistance and guidance from others when confronted with challenges that are of considerable size. Having the support of others will not only lift up your spirits but also push you to work harder because you know someone is beside you to lend a helping hand when you request their service
7. Know your Limitations
Commit to what you can do only. This is possible when you know how far you can stretch. By understanding your limitations, it will be easier to project what can work best for you and what cannot. This will give you the power to choose tasks that you really know you are capable of.
8. Change your Surrounding
Sometimes the environment you are in limits you to an enclosed center of challenges. The best way is to break free form this enslavement and find a new environment that supports you and challenges you to improve yourself. The environment can be your soul or your surrounding. Whatever the case, change it if it is not making you grow.
9. Trust your Abilities
No one will push you forward if you cannot take the first step yourself. And this you cannot do if you don’t believe in your abilities and dreams. Learn to trust yourself and your abilities. Take a leap of faith and do that activity which will stir your emotions.
10. Be Honest
Learn to be honest with yourself and others. When you encounter a challenge that you cannot work on it alone do not hesitate to accept the fact. Also when you wrong others be sure to say “I am sorry” and also “Thank you” when they help you on a task. These words may seem small but it means a lot when said to a person.
Conclusion
As stated above, accountability is vital for personal growth and also success. It helps in keeping one on toes until they realize their goal. But many challenges manifest which makes it difficult to make oneself accountable. Some include inability to differentiate between working hard and working smart, having no clear responsibilities, or trying to be perfect in everything you do. Also being in unsupportive environment can make you struggle to be accountable, same as trying to please everyone.
By identifying these shortcomings, you can begin to address them individually by prioritizing what works best for you. Being honest with yourself and understanding your limitations can help improve your accountability. You have to believe in yourself, set clear goals and work on them. Embrace accountability as a tool to help you improve on your abilities and achieve your goals. When you do this, then you are one step away from reaching the pinnacle of success.