The number one reason most people do not encourage others, and in fact hinder them from being successful, is because they would then have to come to terms with why they have not taken responsibility for themselves to become successful.

The first and hardest step on your path to success is admitting you haven’t done X, Y, and Z and you are the reason you are where you are at. I guarantee you can look at your life; and how much you invest in yourself, and you will see a direct reflection of where you are at and what you have in life.

Every single person who wins big in life has one thing in common: They all hold themselves accountable to executing on the tasks they need to do every day.

It doesn’t matter if they’re tired…

It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are…

It doesn’t matter if the world is on fire…

They run their play … every day.

Success is a simple equation: Put in the work, get the result.

That’s why it is crucial for you to have this same level of personal accountability. It’s the only way you’ll reach your biggest goals in life.

WHAT IS PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY?

Personal accountability is all about keeping the promises you make to yourself. We all know we should be exercising every day to stay healthy. We all know we shouldn’t be cutting corners in our career if we want to make progress. We all know we should be reading to develop ourselves personally. But only people with personal accountability are able to keep themselves on track with doing these things every day. They are able to call themselves out when they are taking the easy route. They are able to auto-correct their effort and habits when they start falling off the path that’s going to help them accomplish their goals. Personal accountability is being able to recognize when you’re not doing what you need to do, and then fixing it immediately when that happens.

Most people get this confused with personal responsibility. Here’s the difference, in case you don’t already know…

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

While being personally accountable is all about holding yourself accountable, personal responsibility has much more to do with taking ownership of your life. It’s understanding that everything in your life is your responsibility, and the things that happen in your life are ultimately your doing.

If you have no sense of personal responsibility, it is very unlikely that you have any personal accountability, they go hand-in-hand, and are both crucial for you to reach your goals.

THE BENEFITS OF PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

When you have personal accountability, it comes with a lot of benefits.

Here are just 3 of the biggest perks:

1. YOU CAN REACH YOUR GOALS

The actions that you take on a daily basis are ultimately what shapes your life in the future. How do you expect to reach your goals if you can’t hold yourself accountable to executing on these daily actions to the best of your abilities?

Simple … you can’t expect to accomplish anything!

When you have personal accountability, you will make sure you’re taking care of these daily tasks. You’ll be brutally honest with yourself when you’re not taking care of what needs to get done. You’ll be able to reach your biggest goals as a result of consistent daily action.

2. YOU’LL HAVE MORE SELF-AWARENESS

Having personal accountability is also great, because it will help you recognize when you are making compromises.

All of us will compromise on things that shouldn’t even be debatable.

This is why so many people fall out of shape…

Slowly taper down their physical activity…

Get looser with their nutrition…

Then, all of a sudden … they have a couple bad habits that eventually lead them to poor physical health.

When we compromise, we downplay our potential.

It will only make us a weaker version of the person we could be.

That’s why having personal accountability is so important…

You’ll be aware of when you’re making these compromises, and immediately correct them.

3. YOU WON’T MIND HOLDING OTHERS ACCOUNTABLE

When you hold yourself accountable to a set standard, it’s much easier to do the same for others.

All great leaders lead by example.

If you have personal accountability, and are putting in the work on a daily basis, you’ll gain the respect of the people around you.

This will transfer over to how you hold others accountable as well which will help them improve and win in life.

HOW DO YOU BUILD PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY?

Building personal accountability is easy, but first, you have to take ownership of your life the way it is. If you can’t do this, you’ll always have an excuse.

Once you have taken complete ownership of your life, then think about your biggest goals.

If you are going to learn how to have personal accountability, you have to reverse engineer these goals into small, actionable steps. Then take these actionable steps that will help you reach your goals, and make a plan to execute on these tasks every day.

If you complete all tasks=YOU WIN THE DAY!

If you do not complete all tasks=YOU LOSE THE DAY!

See, building personal accountability is as easy as being brutally honest with yourself, and making sure that you complete your critical tasks every single day.

That way, you are holding yourself accountable to reaching your goals. (more on this later)

How do we stay motivated?

Motivation has nothing to do with becoming successful in life, because in reality, self-discipline is your key to creating the life you want. Anybody can do the shit they need to do when they feel like doing it. But, if you want to win, you have to show up and give it everything you’ve got … especially when you don’t feel like it.

WHAT IS SELF-DISCIPLINE?

Self-discipline is showing up and executing regardless of the conditions or how you feel.

It’s showing up to the gym when you don’t feel like it…

It’s giving your all at work when you don’t feel like it…

It’s being present with your family when you don’t feel like it…

It’s doing all of the little things that you don’t always want to do or “aren’t in the mood” for…

…and executing on them to the best of your ability EVERY TIME.

Self-discipline is truly the difference between people who live average, mundane lives…

…and the people who are fulfilled and successful in life. Period.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP SELF-DISCIPLINE?

Here are 6 of the best ways to develop self-discipline…

1. KEEP THE PROMISES THAT YOU MAKE TO YOURSELF

Discipline is simply executing on the things you say you’re going to do consistently. It’s really that easy. What do you tell yourself you’re going to do?

Whatever it is, I would break it down into actionable steps you can take every day to reach your goals, and take action on those steps with the intent to execute them flawlessly.

If you don’t…

Your level of self-discipline goes down instead of going up.

If you tell yourself you’re going to work out… then work out.

If you tell yourself you’re going to read 10 pages of a book…then read 10 pages.

If you tell yourself you’re going to make 5 extra calls before you leave the office…then make 5 extra calls. Not 1, not 2, not 4 … 5.

Keeping these promises is the foundation for building your self discipline. It’s a very simple concept, and yes … some days are going to be much harder than others to get things done, but that doesn’t matter.

You have to execute EVERY TIME.

2. ESTABLISH ACCOUNTABILITY

Holding yourself accountable is crucial to your success. A huge component to building self-discipline is recognizing when you’re falling short and correcting yourself. When you learn to identify these situations and take action to fix it…You’ll start to build your self-discipline.

Finding someone else to hold you accountable is also a great strategy, but don’t use it as a crutch or an excuse. YOU need to develop the discipline.

Power through the things you know you need to do, regardless of how you feel…That’s how you’ll build self-discipline.

3. USE YOUR EXCUSES AS TRIGGERS FOR PRODUCTIVE ACTION

The reason why most people don’t follow through on the things they need to do is because of the excuses that pop into their head. They think…

“Well, I’ll just start my diet on Monday because I have a social event this weekend.”

If this is how you think…You need to re-train your brain to recognize these excuses, and take action despite the excuse. When you choose to take action in these moments, you’ll be making massive progress with your self-discipline.

Excuses will confine you to a miserable life.

Quit making them.

4. TRY SOMETHING NEW AND CHALLENGING

Build your self-discipline by setting challenging goals and accomplishing them. Doing hard things requires you to be disciplined.

Mental toughness…

Grit…

Fortitude…

Confidence…

Self-belief…

Self-worth…

…and much more.

Don’t you want to become one of those people who seems to win at everything they do?

You can.

5. BUILD HABITS AND ROUTINES AROUND YOUR TASKS

If you’re trying to stay disciplined to certain tasks in your day, make them a part of your daily routine. Structure can be super helpful when it comes to staying disciplined. If you are consistent with WHEN you do tasks throughout the day, they become a natural reaction, second nature, When you make this routine habitual, self-discipline will be a byproduct of you sticking to your routine.

6. MAKE A LIST OF CRITICAL TASKS

If you have things you’re looking to be disciplined to…

Write them down, and focus on accomplishing your tasks every single day.

I take 5 critical tasks for the day, and put my focus into completing them to win the day.

When you win enough days, you win the week.

When you win enough weeks, you win the month.

When you win enough months, you win the year.

If you win enough years, you win in life.

But, you have to start by staying disciplined TODAY.

SELF-DISCIPLINE IS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS

Without self-discipline, you will accomplish nothing of significance.

Self-discipline is a skill which is developed through action.

The best thing is, the more self-disciplined you get, the easier it is to build upon.

You have to become self-disciplined if you want to be successful.

It’s not an option…

It’s a requirement.

Be Accountable

Only when you accept personal accountability can you move forward with your goals. Personal Accountability takes care of you as well as leads by example to the people around you. It takes care of all of us.