Accountability - Can You Dig It?? -or- Why You Need a Coach

Why do most independent business people struggle with inconsistent income and unreliable results?  Simple, their bosses are incredibly bad.  They lack the will to truly hold their employees accountable.  So, you say that you don't have a boss or employees... that you're an independent contractor and you own your business?  Great!  I say, take a look in the mirror.  Seriously.  Do this with me here...  Ready?

If you are looking in the mirror, you are looking at a boss who is terrible at holding people accountable AND you are looking at your single worst employee.  Seriously.  Would you hire yourself?  That guy/girl never shows up for work on time.  They are incredibly inconsistent in their lead generation tasks.  Their follow-up is hit and miss.  They are usually putting off tasks and projects that they should have accomplished by now and their time management sucks.

Does that sound brutal?  Is any of this uncomfortable?  If it is... GOOD!  Discomfort causes change.  Gene Rivers with Keller Williams Realty told me recently that accountability (true accountability) works because no one wants to feel loss of integrity.  In other words, when you commit to something, when you promise someone that you will do something and then you don't follow through, you let that person down.  Inside yourself you feel  it!  You are ashamed and you feel a great loss of integrity.  Even if that person tries to tell you that they don't mind or that it's alright, it doesn't matter.  You both know that you failed to deliver on a commitment.

The trouble with most of us is that the person we let down most often is ourselves.  How many times have you said to yourself, "I'm going to start working out.  Tomorrow I will get up early and get a run in before work."  Or, "I'm going to lead generate every day from 8am to 11am."  Then maybe it happens once or twice.  But after a few times you will stop and revert back to your old habits.  Most of us will readily let ourselves down when we would never drop the ball on a commitment that we made to someone else.  I'm here to tell you that this is a major injustice on a cosmic scale.  It is at least as bad and perhaps worse than letting someone else down.  Gene Rivers was right!  No one wants to feel loss of integrity.  But the most invasive and destructive infection is the loss of integrity with ourselves.  It results in negative thoughts, feelings, and self-talk.  Things like;

•  "I just can't find the time."
• "This business is so up and down that I never know what's coming next."
• "Maybe I'm not cut out for this."
• "I need to get a 'real job' so I can pay my bills"
• "The market is no good."
• "I'm not good enough."
• I can't get in shape.  I'm just "big boned".

You can probably think of more.

So use the fact that it's human nature to be ok with letting ourselves down but to be uncomfortable with letting others down.  Get a coach or at the very least, an accountability partner.  Sign a written accountability agreement with consequences for non-performance.  Maybe you have to wash your coach's car in the parking lot if you don't deliver on a commitment.

What you'll find is that you probably will not ever have to wash your coach's car.  Your natural built-in aversion to letting someone besides yourself down will help keep you on the straight and narrow path.  And if you're implementing the right things, your business, your performance, your demeanor, your attitude, and your life with soar!

No limits babies!!