The Key to Fast-track your progress and achieve extraordinary results.

My work allows me to interact with different kinds of people and understand human behavior closely. Among several things, one of the things which fascinate me is the similarity of certain traits. There are certain attributes that are common, irrespective of age, sex, demography, or geography. One such trait is the inability to evolve or change. I am not talking about people who don’t aspire to change, that’s a separate category of people who lack awareness and will talk about them some other time. It’s about people who want to change.

 

These are the people who have got some awareness about themselves and realized what is it that’s stopping them. I call them progressive individuals because they have the desire to move ahead in life by working on themselves. They have the best of intentions, required knowledge, and are ready to put in efforts but still remain stuck for long periods.

 

I have seen fancy goal sheets, elaborate action plans, and pretty much everything except the results.

 

I discovered one thing which bridges the gap between, who you are & who you want to be is Accountability.

 

Accountability in simple words implies being answerable. Unless you are accountable, things don’t really happen the way they should.

 

It has been well proven that accountability drives us to achieve more and progress faster. Left to our free will with no one to answer to, we tend to delay things forever.

 

It is omnipresent in all the areas of our life, without us even knowing about it.

 

Let’s consider some of the key benefits of accountability.

 

• Accountability for results, makes us work faster.
• Accountability for actions keeps us on track.
• Accountability for quality pushes us to work harder.
• Accountability for our behavior teaches us to practice self-restraint.
• And the list goes on and on…

If you look around, in each and every aspect of life, accountability get things done.

 

There are essentially 2 kinds of accountability :

 

#1.Self-Accountability

#2.Accountability to others

 

Type 1-Self-accountability is really tough and most of us are very poor at it. You would notice, that how often you tend to delay those tasks which don’t require our association with others.We keep on delaying things endlessly, being fully aware of the consequences.Unless you are able to devise a system or mechanism for self-accountability, it doesn’t work. Most of us don’t have strong willpower, and even a few who have it can’t rely on it forever.

 

One of the effective ways of implementing self-accountability is by developing powerful habits & integrating those habits into a routine. Initially when the emotion to achieve a particular objective is high, willpower can help you in sticking to habits and form a routine. Once you form a routine then it would be easier for you to stick to habits without relying on willpower every time.

 

The strange thing about habits is that they are neither easy to develop, nor to break. So if you are able to push through during the initial phase, then chances are you will sail through later.

 

Type 2 of accountability which is being answerable to others is relatively easy & much more effective. Whenever we are answerable to others we work faster. Psychologically it makes things happen magically. Some of the common examples where we practice it in our daily lives are:

 

• An employee is answerable to the manager or supervisor for completion of work.
• An entrepreneur is answerable to customers for the delivery of a product or service.
• A student is answerable to teachers for academic progress.
• In a relationship, partners are answerable to each other for the relationship to work.

Therefore the fastest & assured way of achieving the results and getting work done is by being accountable to others. However, you can be accountable to someone else only if it’s an objective of mutual interest. As you can see in the instances shared above, the accountability system works because your results have a bearing on the other person’s outcomes too.

 

#If an employee doesn’t perform, the manager’s performance goes down too.

 

#In a business, customers pay for the delivery of goods & services, so it’s their money at stake.

 

#If a student doesn’t perform teacher’s track record is affected.

 

#If partners are not accountable, the relationship doesn’t work.

 

and likewise…

 

However, when it comes to personal development or self-growth, this doesn’t happen. Others may never relate to your objective of self-growth or self-transformation, as strongly as you would. The order of priority would be different, and hence it won’t work. For example, if you want to get fit and lose some weight unless your boss or partner also wants to achieve the same, you can’t rely on them for getting results.

 

So what’s the way out?

 

In such instances, a coach or mentor works best as an accountability partner. There are multiple benefits of having a coach or mentor by your side:

 

1. They are the subject matter experts, who have trodden the path.
2. They serve as good guides and you can learn from their experiences to avoid committing similar mistakes
3. You learn the tactical skills.
4. You save a lot of time, by knowing exactly what needs to be done.
5. It’s a common area of interest so you can have deep and meaningful discussions.
6. You pay to avail of their services so both are accountable to each other.
7. Like a teacher, your results have implications on their effectiveness too.
8. You are answerable for your results, which pushes you to take action.

We have numerous examples, where coaches have played a key role in uplifting the performance of their students:

 

#Arjun had Dronacharya

 

#Sachin Tendulkar had Ramakant Achrekar

 

#P V Sidhu has coach Gopichand

 

#Tony Robbins had Jim Rohn

 

#Jim Rohn had Earl Shroff

 

We have many such examples where successful people had impactful coaches or mentors.

 

If you want to have that awesome physique, availing services of a fitness coach saves you a lot of time and gives assurance of results.

 

If you want to progress in your career, taking the help of a career coach saves precious years while giving you the exact strategy.

 

If you want to improve performance and work on life skills, why shy from taking the help of a life coach?

 

Most people are initially apprehensive until they see the results. Nevertheless, that doesn’t alleviate the benefits of coaching and accountability is the single most component which differentiates the results like no other.

 

There are two ways to progress faster in life:

 

#1.Invest Time, Save Money

 

#2. Invest Money, Save Time.

 

Before making your choice, it’s important to remember that Time is Money. I have never heard anyone saying Money is Time. I am sure you haven’t either. If you save time it will give you a return which may be much beyond what you would have got by saving money.

 

As I always say, it’s always about making choices,

 

Are you Penny Wise (Saving Money & Investing Time)

or

Pound wise( Saving Time & Investing Money)

The choice you make will define you.

 

To quote Jim Rohn, “You must work harder on yourself than you do in your job”

 

Are you?

 

Cheers!

 

Lalit Hundalani

 

Peak Performance & Life Transformation Coach|| Best-Selling Author of 2 Books||Mentor

 

PS: If you are an ACTION TAKER, who would like to fast-track the progress, then you must click on the link below to avail a FREE  session with me.

​

BOOK MY SESSION​

​