“Finding the courage to be accountable for your actions is vital in creating a great life. Master courageous accountability.” ~Lisa Merlo-Booth
Personal growth cannot happen without courageous accountability. If you struggle with taking in feedback, acknowledging your mistakes, or often blame your life problems on everyone else, then you’re sabotaging yourself and your relationships. Too many people are terrible at being accountable. The world trains men to believe it’s weak to acknowledge mistakes and socializes women to strive to be perfect. When world leaders also respond with extreme defensiveness and deflection rather than repair and accountability for their actions, they further entrench these unhealthy messages into the fabric of our society. As you can imagine, all of these cultural messages make being accountable a rare mastery of courage.
Here’s the thing about accountability, though—it is badass, life-changing, and incredibly courageous. When you dare to admit your mistakes, learn from them, and repair the damage, you grow. Owning your mistakes and taking full responsibility for your actions or inactions is one of the most empowering things you can do. It is also one of the most courageous.
When you own your actions –and their consequences—it puts you in the driver’s seat of your life. There is nothing more empowering than taking control of your life—the good, the bad, and the ugly parts. When you’re in control of your life, you have the power to change it. When you blame others for your life, they are in the driver’s seat of your life, and you are powerless to change it. Refuse to let others drive your emotions, choices, actions, relationships, and life. Dare to take responsibility for your actions every time.
Healthy relationships—with yourself or others—cannot happen without courageous accountability. It’s time to change the game when it comes to relationships by changing how you show up in them.
#RadicallyNewRelationships are powerful, inspiring, safe, connected, and reciprocal. These relationships can’t happen if you’re too fragile to take in feedback, own your mistakes, and bravely show up differently as a result. Defensively reacting to feedback or blaming others for your plight makes change near impossible. Stop defending and start courageously showing up.
Challenge: Find the courage to courageously show up in your life and relationships—for yourself and others. Inherent in your humanity is imperfection, so mistakes are inevitable. Dare to own your actions rather than making them worse by incessantly defending them or blaming others for them.