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I am a member of a group of business owners who meet weekly to hold ourselves accountable for growing our businesses. Everyone has a boss and everyone needs to be held accountable. Sometimes, when you are at the top of an organization it is difficult to find the appropriate motivation.
Good leaders will always feel motivated when times are tough. However, when business is doing well (or at least not suffering) apathy and lethargy tend to sneak in and lead to one not reaching their potential.
Accountability partners are there to ensure you are taking action. They insure you are pushing yourself and bringing your A game each and every day. Accountability is an essential element of any successful endeavor and we hold people accountable through their actions.
When a player tells me they are going to do something then I monitor their actions because their words and desire are not sufficient. Phrases like "I am trying" or "I forgot" or "I can't" are often uttered when a player has not taken the correct action.
One of the more powerful ways we teach our football team the concept of concentrating is to make the entire team run for every pass that is dropped in our warm up drills. We toss the ball to every player throughout a number of drills which have more to do with footwork than catching the ball.
Every season, it is the new players to the team who drop the passes. A veteran player almost never drops a ball. This is because the veterans have conditioned their minds to focus on the mundane task of doing the drills. They know there are consequences for their actions and the running makes them accountable. We see this also play out in the weight room. The players who find accountability partners are the ones who end up getting BFS (bigger, faster, stronger).
“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:23-25
The bible calls upon us not to simply obey the law and God's word but to act on it. We are called to be doers. We can "do all things through Christ" Phil 4:13. We are called to show our faith "through our works." (James 2:18).
While faith is an integral component of our walk, it is faith through action where we can testify so that all men know we are Christians. We are called to practice our faith openly so all will know us by our deeds.
I heard a fellow business leader answer a question as to what single piece of advice he would give to build a successful company. He responded "Actionism". He said far to many businesses fail because they fail to act. They spend to much time and energy trying to formulate the best plan and flush out the ideas. He called this "idealism". He said that once your actionism far outpaces your idealism you will be on the path to success.
I encourage you to look at your life. Where in your studies, your faith, your home life are you saying you will do something but are currently putting off until tomorrow what could get done today. Where might you embrace actionism.
Set a goal this week to act and find someone to hold you accountable and become an actionist and not an idealist!
