Accountability

You have probably heard a lot about holding employees accountable for their actions. But how do you hold yourself accountable? After all, you make the rules for your business, and you can break them whenever you want.

One way to hold yourself accountable is to share your plans and goals with others. If you proclaim your intentions to the world, you are more likely to follow up on them. If you keep them “secret”—to yourself—it can be rather easy to let things slip.

It is quite easy to set goals and then promptly forget them. The details of running a business, not to mention life itself, can distract us or send us off course. We can make excuses and procrastinate. There is no shortage of reasons why we can’t actively work on our goals. And this is even easier when those goals reside solely in the inner recesses of our mind.

Many contractors start their business because they want “freedom”—they don’t want the restrictions imposed by a boss or large corporation. They want to be able to do what they want, when they want. But such “freedom” is not a recipe for success. Success is not gained by following one’s whims, but by setting goals and pursuing them.

Ultimately, we can only be responsible for ourselves. We are the only person who can decide what we want out of life and how we will achieve it. And that requires that we hold ourselves accountable.