Hold Yourself Accountable

Today’s thought is on accountability

• For context, I would like you to know that the subject of accountability has been a part of my most recent conversations with my son. I felt that this specific experience was perfect for sharing in my journal.

I was speaking with my 14-year-old son about the quality of his work regarding his daily responsibilities (chores). In this specific instance, he had his 5-year-old brother putting dishes and utensils on the drying rack after being washed. When I noticed the drying rack all the dishes and utensils were poorly stacked and not organized. He has been doing the dishes since he was 10, so the appearance of the dish rack was questionable. There were knives pointing in every direction, it looked like a death trap.

I immediately called him over and explained that he did a terrible job stacking the dishes. His response was to blame his brother. I reminded him that this is his responsibility and not his brothers’ as he is too short to reach into the dish rack properly. 

I applauded his attempts to delegate, but also told him “This was not done correctly, and due to his laziness, our team is not working efficiently.” 

I then said, “Your laziness is hurting the team.”

“Did you hear what I said?” I continued.

He nodded and said “Yes”

At that moment I was looking at my son and thinking that he really was not understanding what I was saying. I could tell that all he was thinking about was: I’m in trouble, along with any other negative self-talk he was focusing on.

So, I said, “Repeat what I just said.”

He responded, “It was done wrong.”

My response was as follows:

“No, that’s not what I said, I said your laziness is hurting the team, And I want you to say it out loud just like that” 

He reciprocated.

Then we discussed how he was not accepting responsibility for what had happened. This was evident by his lack of ownership of the situation. I expanded on my thoughts of his lack of accountability and explained to him that it is his responsibility to hold high standards for himself.

• You have to be willing to say that you are wrong to truly be able to meet yourself where you are. It’s in those moments when you access the learning faculties in your mind and begin a new journey to enhance your personal development. 

• Be willing to look at yourself in the mirror and admit that you need to get better, because how you’ve been is not good enough.

Acknowledge your faults and weaknesses because they are a part of your story, and then improve on them. This is how you hold yourself accountable.

• Only YOU can hold yourself accountable.