How Can I Be More Accountable for Change?

Why is making a significant change in your life so difficult to accomplish? According to Otis Williams, a certified speaking professional, there’s no accountability. Here are his insights on how to add accountability to your life that he recently shared on Expert Access Radio.

Being Accountable

“Most people have no accountability system set up,” says Williams. “They don’t hold themselves accountable for their actions.”

According to Williams, to be able to make a change in your life, you have to really be serious about making the change and hold yourself accountable for it. Whether the change is big or small, you need to have an accountability partner.

The same thing happens with resolutions, goals and objectives. People set resolutions, goals and objectives that they really have not thought through. “A majority of the time people start out with the ‘what.’ What do I want? What do I want to do? … things of that nature,” says Williams. “Then you have to figure out the ‘how.’ How am I going to go about doing this? How am I going to get there? The most powerful part that drives this process is the ‘why.’ More often than not, people leave out the why, or if they do know the why, it’s not strong enough to keep them motivated to move forward.”

SMART Goals

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Those are the building blocks to successfully achieve your goals and objectives. “The SMART goal will allow you to think through what you are trying to attain,” say Williams. “Once you feel that the goal is attainable, measurable and will end in the result you are looking for, go after it.” If it doesn’t work out the way it was planned, don’t beat yourself up about it—that’s not helpful. Just acknowledge that it happened and move on.

Mind Game

Setting a goal is something of a mind game. Williams recommends that you find the correct balance of setting ambitious goals, but they still have to be realistic. “The goal or objective that we choose to pursue has to be something that we are capable of doing,” says Williams. “If it is not, it is then considered a stretch goal.” A stretch goal is going to stretch and pull us. It may stretch us personally or professionally, it may stretch resources, but at the end of the day, if achieved or when achieved, it’s a game changer. With a stretch goal, have someone else take a look at what you are doing. Have them provide input regarding your goal and if it’s attainable. Just because it’s a huge goal, it does not mean that it’s not realistic to reach.

We all have goals—some small and some big—but it is how we are able to overcome the obstacles to reach those goals that matters.

LISTEN to the complete interview with Otis Williams on Expert Access Radio.

For more information, go to Otis Williams’ website.