As a coach, I’ve often had clients need accountability on the tasks they commit to. For many years I struggled with why some clients need accountability and some don’t. Honestly I’m not really an accountability coach and I’ve found that the clients who get the best results were inspired to take quick, decisive action.
When I ask these big questions of life I get to the answer through first hand experience. Meaning I get to face my own limitations and patterns to figure out the answers.
Like why I don’t make it to the gym unless I have a trainer or work-out partner.
Or how having a writing deadlines with a book coach actually gets me to stop procrastinating and write.
Or when I tell my guy to keep me accountable to my eating plan when I beg him to make me gluten-free chocolate chip cookies (how I loathe my commitment to eat clean when those cravings kick in.)
When I need accountability I’m often forcing myself to do something that a part of me doesn’t want to do. Being a mindset expert comes in handy because I get to use my own processes to dig deep and recode the parts of my mind that operate like a rebellious 13 year old.
Here’s what I know about myself (and the hundreds of clients I’ve coached on needing accountability to stay motivated):
When you want something with every fiber of your being, you do not need accountability. If you are all in, and you’ve committed to have that outcome, even if its scary and bigger than anything you’ve ever accomplished, you will take action.
So what does that say about all those other goals and activities that you aren’t accomplishing?
In my experience, it means we have to set a better goal. A goal that is aligned with what you deeply desire and feel passionate about. Something that you wakes up every day and can’t wait to dig into. For some people, it may simply be that you’ve missed a step in your goals process and you forgot to get clear on how this goal ties to your bigger why.
Now there will be a lot of people who set a goal that scares the crap out of them. If you know that this goal is something you absolutely want but you aren’t taking action, then we have to go to the mindset.
On some level you may have an internal conflict about achieving the goal. Or its possible that your paradigm of possibility is limiting you right now — and you can’t see how to get to the goal.
These issues don’t get solved by having an accountability partner or coach hammer you with check-in’s and motivational platitudes — this is when you need to recode your mindset so that the mental barriers are replaced with focus, clarity and conviction to achieve.
This is what it means to be in effortless flow — your actions feel easy because every part of you is in alignment and actions are intentional.
So where you are…
Are you in effortless flow because you are 100% on board with your goal?
Or are you struggling, procrastinating and playing too small?
Know that with aligned goals it ALL gets easier. Oh, and if you are going for a goal that you still need a lot of accountability for and you just can’t seem to get past your resistance? Maybe you need to dump it. Its quite possible its not YOUR goal but one that someone else set for you. Just sayin.