Be Accountable and Create your Destiny
Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized
anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
My previous blog identified the five core values of a Quantum Leap Thinker: Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Perseverance and Discipline and explored the first, respect. Let’s take a brief look at “accountability.”
My brother, Dave, was an exemplary junior high school teacher. With his own children and with his students, he teaches a very simple principle: You have unlimited choices and you may choose to do whatever you like to do, as long as you are willing to pay the price for you actions. I like that.
Accountability opens up your personal freedom, but at the same time drives home cause and effect. Being accountable defuses the “blame game” and the mythical ‘‘they did it’’ excuse. ‘‘They forgot to tell me.’’ ‘‘They messed up the works.’’ ‘‘They have all the good jobs.’’
Freedom must be accompanied by accountability. By making accountability a major value in your Grand Vision, you take the leap from being a victim to being a player. In the final analysis, accountability places your destiny in your hands.
James Mapes is the founder of Quantum Leap Thinking™, creator of The Transformational Coach™, expert on the psychology of “applied imagination,” best-selling author, highly acclaimed business speaker, consultant, seminar leader and personal excellence coach.