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If you’ve been in productivity culture long enough, you can probably extol the virtues of a routine like you’re reciting the alphabet.
Routines are important. They get you into flow, they build consistent habits, they reduce or eliminate uncertainty, and they give you structure. However, most routines emphasize your wellness or readiness. It’s about drinking lemon tea in the morning or getting your workout in before 6 AM. Those are fantastic goals, but if you really want your life to progress in a certain way, you don’t just need a routine, you need an accountability routine.
What is an accountability routine?
In his book, “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth,” John Maxwell explains that people tend to approach personal development in two ways: accidentally or intentionally.
When we’re young, our bodies grow naturally, and without us having to do much to assist them. We typically ascend from one grade to the next, and the majority of our development — from motor skills to social skills — happens unconsciously. What we don’t realize is that as adults, it doesn’t happen that way. If growth isn’t intentional, it doesn’t happen.
Now, if you’re like most people, you probably don’t have a daily plan to facilitate your progress. You probably don’t have a plan for your personal growth, which is precisely the problem. That’s where an accountability routine comes in.
An accountability routine is a set series of tasks that are in direct support or facilitation of your personal goals and objectives. This routine is a non-negotiable part of your day.
Your accountability routine can consist of tasks such as the following:
- Check all bank accounts and credit card statements.
- Recite affirmations or meditate.
- Do a skincare routine.
- Upload or create a social media post for your business.
- Contribute to big goals, such as writing a bit of a book.
- Track your physical health with a comprehensive body composition scale.
- Plan your evening meal.
If your goal is greater financial health, checking all of your bank account statements each morning would be a great way to hold yourself accountable. Can you do something about the balance every single day? Probably not. However, simply being aware of what you do or don’t have will influence your behavior.
If your goal is to develop your emotional intelligence, meditating, journaling or reciting affirmations would be in support of that. If your goal is to develop greater physical health, planning a home-cooked meal, taking vitamins, or knowing your current body composition would be in support of that.
In any of these cases, the actions you perform within an accountability routine may not have a dramatic impact on your life on their own. However, consistently doing them will change your life in a way that you have never been able to achieve before.
An accountability routine is an opportunity to ask yourself the important questions.
Many people set goals.
In fact, many people even track what they are or aren’t achieving in some tangible way.
However, if you aren’t incorporating behaviors that would directly facilitate the accomplishment you desire, it is either going to take you far longer to get there, if at all. Maxwell attributes this to something called “diminishing intent,” which is the idea that the longer we wait to do something, the more unlikely we become to do it at all.
Instead, we can commit to our future by taking concrete steps in the present.
