Personal Accountability: Are you try to teach a pig to sing?

Take accountability. You’ve told someone to take it. You’ve been told to take it.

But what does it actually mean? And how do you do it?

There’s a great Mark Twain quote that describes personal accountability well:

“Never try to teach a pig to sing. It annoys the pig and wastes your time.”

The essence of taking accountability is to shift your focus on from what “they” should have done. Instead focus on what you can do.

When you focus on what you can do, you take back your power. Even if what you can do is small.

That’s super easy on paper. Practically our emotions run high.

Here’s how to take accountability:

  1. Ask yourself:

    1. Am I at my best? You are not at your best if:

      1. You are waiting for someone else to do what they “should” be doing

      2. You are blaming someone

      3. You are thinking “they should just it”.

      4. You are judging anyone: “if they did the right thing”

      5. You are waiting for them to “behave”

    2. Now think about the pig: IS IT SINGING? No? Then chances are you need to refocus your energy

    3. Ask yourself: Given that the pig isn’t singing, is there something else I could do to improve this situation?

    4. Do it!

Some times there wont be any actions you can take to change a situation. Taking accountability means focusing on how you can soothe yourself. You don’t have to stay “not at your best”.

Accountability - are you trying to teach a pig to sing?

There are a million ways to reclaim “being at your best” but here are some tools you might like to try:

  • Work with an individual coach to help you get back to ‘best’ in the heat of the moment
  • Centering practises: Use the Centering App, to help you reduce stress and self-sooth
  • Use the GPS for the soul App to monitor your stress and use it’s Yoga, visualisation and tools to get back to “best”

Tell us your tips on how to take accountability!

Here’s what you have to remember:

  • Taking personal accountability means focusing on what you can do to improve the situation
  • You need to be at “your best” to take personal accountability. Sooth yourself using a centring app
  • Decide that you can do to improve the situation
  • Do it! Even if the only thing you can do is sooth yourself.

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