Being personally accountable means taking ownership of your actions and for the consequences of your actions, too. Responsibility and Accountability go hand in hand.
Taking responsibility for the outcomes of our actions can help us to improve our overall health.
And then keeping ourselves accountable is a really important part of meeting those health and wellness goals.
Benefits Of Personal Accountability
Is being accountable different to being responsible?
Responsibility is when you make decisions about the actions you will take.
Accountability goes further — you are not just responsible for the actions you take, you also take ownership of the longer-term outcomes of those actions.
There are ways to make developing accountability enjoyable, and allowing you to reap the benefits of meeting your health goals. Let’s take fitness, or intentional movement, as an example.
You might already take responsibility for your actions (like knowing it’s your responsibility to get a workout done). Being accountable means recognising that skipping a workout can impact your path to building sustainable healthy habits.
For example, say you commit to working out three times a week.
You plan ahead to make sure you meet this goal. But because of external circumstances that are out of your control, you only do one workout that week.
This is an outcome of your own (and sometimes others) actions.
Taking accountability means owning those outcomes, and putting in place solutions so that you can still meet your fitness goals.
The Benefits of Keeping Ourselves Accountable
Personal accountability helps to keep you motivated and on track with your health aims. There are a few ways that it can improve your health and quality of life and you’ll be more motivated to keep trying when you have setbacks.
When external circumstances affect your ability to get things done, you can demonstrate accountability by owning these setbacks. This can empower you to realise that your actions are in your control, so you can take steps to continue towards achieving your goals.
Having personal accountability may mean you improve your relationships with others. In a 2005 study by Utrecht University in The Netherlands, researchers found that developing personal accountability resulted in more positive social behaviour in children. This may come in the form of building trust, as people know they can rely on you to take responsibility for the outcomes of your actions.
Eleven Ways To Keep Yourself Accountable
Staying accountable will help you to achieve your health and wellness goals.
To get started with developing your personal accountability, there are some measures you can put in place:
1. Removing blame
It’s normal to have setbacks when you’re striving towards a health goal, in almost every aspect of life. But it’s important that when you run into these roadblocks, you don’t blame others or other external factors for them.
This doesn’t mean feeling as though it's all your fault or punishing yourself — but feeling empowered to identify where things went wrong and take steps to ensure you can get back on track. You recognise that you have control over your actions and their outcomes.
2. Set clear goals
Setting clear goals for yourself is a great way to ensure you have clarity over the health and wellness results you’d like to achieve. Setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely) ensures you are able to take specific actions that will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
You can use your goals to make sure you stay on track, and remind yourself of why you’re taking the actions you are taking, such as setting your alarm for 6am so you can work out before your day begins.
3. Reward yourself when you achieve positive outcomes
Remember, you’re not just responsible for the negative consequences of your actions — you’re responsible for the positive results of your actions too! This means you should fully enjoy the outcomes of your actions as much as you can. This might mean rewarding yourself for getting all your workouts done in one week by having a movie night with your friends or buying yourself something you’ve been wanting for a while.
4. Do what you enjoy
Whether you’re trying to get fitter or practising mindfulness, try to make developing your wellness enjoyable for you. Find a training style that you enjoy, or make sure the meditation app you’re using is one that you like. You can enjoy taking ownership of your actions and their outcomes. When you take pride in being personally accountable, you can make conscious choices to achieve the outcomes you want by doing activities that you enjoy.
5. Remind yourself of your achievements
Remembering what you've done well can help keep you accountable. Remember to look back at where you were when you started your health journey. This might mean looking at pictures of yourself from before you started working toward your fitness goals, or reflecting on the number of reps you could do of a challenging exercise at the start of your journey and comparing this to now.
6. Develop healthy habits
Habits are the actions we take on a daily basis, sometimes without even realising. Taking ownership of your habits, and trying to develop healthy habits on a daily basis that improve your overall wellbeing will help you stay accountable for your health journey. Remember that you are in control of your habits, even though sometimes you might not realise!
7. Keep a schedule
Having a “system” for which you measure and track your wellness habits (i.e. when you do exercise or when you do meal prep) can help you to maintain your progress and keep track. When something goes wrong, it’s then easier to look at your schedule (or your system) and determine where things might have slipped up. There will always be fluctuations in schedules and timing — that’s life! But if you’re able to identify where things might have stopped you from meeting your goals, it’s easier to identify a solution so that you can try and prevent it from happening again.
8. Keep track of your progress
If you have set goals for yourself, an important part of measuring your success is keeping track of how you are progressing with them. Knowing your progress can also keep you motivated to keep pursuing your objectives.
9. Write things down
Writing down your workouts once you’ve done them, or keeping a gratitude journal can help remind you why you've committed to these healthy activities — even on the days when you're not feeling motivated.
10. Have a backup plan
When you have setbacks, like a change in schedule or something unexpected that prevents you from taking action to achieve your goals, it’s important to have a plan in place so that you’re in the best possible position to get things done. Your routine won’t always stay the same, so be prepared for things to shift and to take action when they do.
11. Get an accountability partner
You don’t have to do it all alone! An accountability buddy can help you to stay on track with your goals. You might work out with a friend, or check-in with each other on a weekly basis to talk about your health progress. Telling someone else about your goals can motivate you to keep working towards them. Plus, if you’re working out or setting goals with a partner, you can make your goal setting more fun and social. If you can’t meet up with a friend in person, you can also do this via video chat, or you can share your goal in our FB Online Support Group.