Finding Accountability : An Outside idea
The Ultimate Test
Four university students decided to spend the whole night partying even though they knew that they had a test the next day.
In the morning, they came up with a plan to lie to their professor and get out of taking the test.
They rolled around in the dirt then went to their professor and said they weren’t fit to take the test because they got a flat tire the night before and had spent the entire night pushing the car back to campus.
The teacher agreed to have them resit the test 3 days later.
The four students came back after three days having read and being confident that they’d do well.
The professor put the students in separate rooms and presented them with the question paper.
It had only 2 questions.
- What is your name? (1 point)
- Which tire was flat? (99 Points)
-
- Front right
- Front left
- Back right
- Back left
When you’re running your own businesses, without someone to hold you accountable, you might fall into giving yourself excuses to get out of doing the tough things. The ones that require you to be a risk taker or the ones that are very new to you and scare you because you’re comfortable with the status quo. Or perhaps the things that you put off doing because you find them boring.
It’s easy to excuse yourself from these things but you can’t completely run away from them. The consequences would still come back to haunt you a little later on.
So this week I’d like to ask you:
- Who keeps you accountable?
- What have you put off this week that you should’ve done?
- What are you going to do differently next week?
If you’re struggling with finding accountability try the following steps:
- Be honest with yourself – what are you putting off or finding you can’t complete? If it’s a few things, what’s got the biggest impact? You could try our Eisenhower Matrix to help identify what’s important and urgent for you.
- What do you need to do to find that motivation? Some find a Default Diary helps stay on track. Making sure that the ‘frogs’ are eaten first.
- Imagine what life would be like without the excuses. What could you achieve without being held back? This worksheet might help you get clear on where you want to go and how to get there.
Accountability is an important benefit of being part of a Mastermind Group. In Mastermind9 our members have actions to complete each month and feed back on. This in built accountability means that we stay on track, and achieve our goals for the month for the biggest challenge or opportunity we have facing us at the time. All with the support and encouragement of the team.
Onwards & upwards my friend
P x
