I approach accountability as the willingness to be consciously responsible for every choice my mind makes.

It means doing what I say I will do. When an activity does not end with the result I had planned, my mind does not seek to hide it or avoid it. I know my mind has the courage to face it learn from the experience and use it to move forward to the achievement of the goal.

Following is my practice of training my brain to be consciously responsible for my choices… and what you can choose to do, too.

Train Your Brain To Focus On Your Priorities

It is important to know the ultimate result or goal you want to achieve before you start any project! By knowing where you want to end up, you and your mind can map out the course you plan to take to get there as quickly as possible. Then you can also plan well in advance what tools, resources, and support will be required to keep your enthusiasm strong throughout the process of achieving the goal. Take a moment now to consider what you feel are the most important goals for you to accomplish by taking these steps:

• Step 1: Make a list of all the projects or commitments you already told yourself you will accomplish.
• Step 2: Put a circle around the top 3 projects or commitments that you have listed – the ones you feel are ABSOLUTE MUSTS to accomplish.
• Step 3: Schedule on your calendar all the activities to accomplish these projects or commitments so that you know you have carved out the time to make them a priority.
• Step 4: As you complete one activity, be sure to add another one to your calendar until the project or commitment is completely fulfilled.
• Step 5: Once each project or commitment is completed, create a new project to focus on.
• Step 6: Always remember ‘DO IT YOUR WAY, ANY WAY YOU CAN!’

Be careful about thinking you must do these steps ‘perfectly.’ Allow your mind to play and explore with these steps to discover greater awareness as to where you want to spend your time, money, and attention to move forward to your goal with the greatest ease.

Train Your Brain To Rejuvenate Itself

It is essential that you allow your mind to take short periods of time away from thinking about your goals. It is a conscious practice of rejuvenation. It’s a proactive pause in the activity to catch one’s breath and to ensure there is a balance between action and non-action. When you are feeling that you have been on the ‘go, go, go’ and not giving yourself enough time to ‘rest, rest, rest,’ your mind will resist doing any more activities…and you will be less accountable to your business and yourself.

As an example of why it is essential to take these rejuvenation stops, listen to your favorite song and notice the rhythm, the melody, the phrasing of how the song is composed. Notice each beat and instrument. Also, notice when each instrument rests. It is these rest periods that create the mood of the music.

Without the rest periods, all there would be is beat after beat -- beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, etc. Without the silence, there is no music; there’s only noise.

Allow your mind to create the development of your goal as a beautiful composition…have fun, do something completely unrelated to the goal, or just quietly reflect on your day and what you want to do next.
Although I am mixing metaphors here…it is the reason why we don’t want to put all our eggs in the same basket.

When you give your brain rest stops, it will be much easier to be consciously accountable.