Improving Personal Accountability to Reach Your Peak

Many athletes never reach their potential due to a lack of mental discipline. Producing empowered "mini-me" coaches or "mini-me" leaders shows ones true leadership efforts. The easiest way to hold others accountable is to lead from the front. To be your teams most reliable point guard or quarterback, you must have congruence with principals, dialogue and actions. Your value is reflected in what you leave behind in others. Your value starts with being accountable to you!  

Here are my top five ways to produce great accountability in you the coach or you the athlete:

1. "Love Yourself"- Believe in self-efficacy. Self-confidence is analogous with a champion mindset. Before the whole world can believe you are a successful athlete or person you have to believe first. Positive self dialogue starts first thing in the morning. Even if you have to lie to yourself, eventually the chemistry in your brain will match. The body is run by those same cells, chemicals, and neurotransmitters that are all affected by your words. "I am (fill in the blank) " and "I will (fill in the blank)" are my two favorites.

2. "Compete against yourself" - Often we are so worried about social or personal accomplishment that we live by comparison and judgement. So it is no surprise that your biggest critic is often times you! "The other guy" should serve as a reference point for attributes and skills to work on. Times always change and the person you are comparing yourself to is of course a result of their very own unique process and road. When our goals become strictly competitive based we tend to lose the enjoyment we ultimately need to attain true fulfillment. View your journey as a challenge and not a competition!  

3."Tee off with the putter" - When golfing the goal is simple, take the fewest shots to get the ball in the hole. Now that we defined this journey as a challenge and not a competition, lets start simply by getting the ball rolling and worry less about taking the fewest shots. Actions, small actions, eventually yield astonishing results. Whatever your first move is, repeat that move consistently for 21 days and a habit is formed. If you've ever pushed a car as an athlete or a stranded pedestrian you can understand that it does take a lot of effort to accelerate that load. However, once you are rolling a special thing called momentum helps that process become more efficient.

4. "Hard Work Amplifiers" - Persistence and relentlessness are a part of a successful workmen mentality. We all understand that you have to get off your butt. However, get more out of what you’re doing by educating yourself, listening more than you talk, monitoring your efforts, and stopping every once in awhile to admire your view as you climb. If you really want to be remembered live a few moments in remembrance of those infamous 80's metal bands. Sometimes you have to forgo the risk of blowing out the amp and be bold enough to make some loud noise.

5. "Carry your 5 as you climb" - A "climber" is someone who aspires to be more, who takes action in moving towards that destination, and inevitably is persistent in getting there. Who you spend your time with plays a gargantuan role in how you spend your time . Surround yourself with both the climbers who've already been to where you want to go and those who have the same vision... but make sure they want you to get there too (don’t under estimate that last point). I love the old Jim Rohn quote, "You become the five people you spend most of your time with."