Accountability Isn’t About Consequences But Taking Ownership

But accountability shouldn’t be about consequences and punishment.

Accountability shouldn’t be concerned with fault. It should be concerned with responsibility. Ownership. Be willing to learn from your mistakes rather than defending or hiding from them.

Proactivity over reactivity.

When you are accountable, it means you are taking responsibility, control, ownership over the outcomes of your actions. And when you do that, nothing will get in your way. Nothing will stop you from pursuing your passions and dreams.

How, then, do you start taking accountability?

Free yourself from a victim-mentality

I had a victim-mentality for the majority of my 20s.

Nothing was my fault. I had excuse after excuse as to why I couldn’t create. Why I couldn’t draw, write, design. It was one thing to understand how the surrounding systems made the world more difficult to navigate, and another to use those systems as excuses for why you aren’t where you want to be.

These systems require you to give up on yourself and your dreams to continue to exist.

When you allow others to have power over you mentally, you can’t hope to achieve greatness and pursue excellence. Once I realized that, once I understood that no matter the circumstances, I was responsible for my actions.

It’s freeing once you break yourself from the victim-mentality.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You have to be the change you want to see. You only have control over your thoughts and actions, and thus how you react to the world.

You.

Because at the end of the day, you can’t escape yourself.

Be willing to learn from your mistakes

Don’t look at accountability as a negative, but as a positive.

Accountability shouldn’t be an obligation, but a willingness to accept responsibility for your actions and decisions.

The key word there is willingness.

When you look at being accountable as a positive experience, as an opportunity to learn, the ceiling for growth as a creative person grows exponentially. The fear of failure dissipates. You become more and more willing to try things, and learn from what doesn’t pan out.

When you see accountability as responsibility, you inch closer and closer to your dreams and ambitions.