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How To Be Accountable For Your Own Success

By Gary M Bailey

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Published: 06Feb2009
Word count: 748
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There are many reasons quoted for why new businesses fail - the economy, the product, the system - the list goes on and on. But there is something that is more important that all of these - something that will make the difference between success and failure every single time, yet you rarely hear anyone quoting this as their reason to fail. If you can master being accountable for your own success - you just took the biggest step towards being successful of them all!

So how do you go about being accountable? Well - I'll get to that in a moment, but first let's take a closer look at how this typically plays out. Let me give you an example - we'll call him Mark. I used to work with Mark in engineering, and he was absolutely first rate at repairing equipment of all shapes and sizes. No matter what the problem, he would work it out - and very committed too - no start time was too early, no finish time was too late. Mark got the job done!

Now you'd think that with an attitude like that, Mark simply could not fail if he set out on his own - but that just wasn't true. In fact, Mark had been self-employed several times, and each time he had ended up back in a job, doing basically the same work for someone else. Now why would a motivated, hungry individual end up like that each time?

The reason that Mark always wound up back in a job is quite simply down to habits. We all have habits - in fact by the time you are an adult, your habits pretty much take you through the day! Which side of the road to drive on, how to get to work, what to do there, what time to go home - and so on. In fact, if we have to do something which is not a habit, it can be quite a challenge.

Here you are, ready to start out on your own, in your own business! You've done your research, you've picked out the absolute best system out there, you've determined your budget - in other words, you've done everything you should do to set things up. Now it's time to get into action - and this is where those old habits will creep back in. This is where being accountable for your success becomes vitally important! If you are not accountable for your actions, then you will let yourself off the hook every time - this is the same reason that so many diets fail - people just cannot resist that cream cake and there is no accountability. In your business - if you are not accountable, then you will let things slide.

Understand - success is not one single, massive decision - and neither is failure. Success is a series of small, good decisions made every day over a period of time - failure is a series of small, bad decisions made every day. Like "shall I place some more ads, or go watch TV", or "I could invest this money into my business, but I really want that big screen TV this month".

Now you get the importance of this - here's how you set yourself up for success:

Firstly, set some goals. I'm not talking about the far off, lifestyle goals - I'm talking about small, measurable, daily goals that are totally under your control. For example - placing 10 ads per day would be a good goal. Not a goal of how many people will respond - that's not in your control, but you absolutely are in control of how many ads you place!

Secondly - write these goals down - I have a spreadsheet that I open every time I sit down to work my business with my daily goals on it - so today's Tuesday, that means an article, a video, etc.

Thirdly - get someone else involved. This is the accountability bit! Ask your mentor, or your spouse, or a friend - or simply make your list of goals on a big, displayed whiteboard. Above all - DO NOT give yourself any way to hide out!

Fourth - work this for a reasonable time. I had one guy tell me that he had the afternoon off next Thursday and he was going to work his business then to see if it would work out or not... Might sound crazy, but too many of us are looking for instant results - work your plan for 90 days, see where you are, make changes where you need to and then repeat.

Even with one very successful home business behind him, Gary is constantly watching himself to replace those bad habits with good ones! Take a look at his current home based business here.

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