Being accountable for your goals, responsibilities and promises puts you in better control of your own life, while also allowing others to count on you. Some accountability strategies to help you in this pursuit include…
- Changing the background on your phone, laptop or tablet to a goal you want to reach or a motivational saying
- Setting reminders and alarms on your phone to remind yourself of where you’d like to be with a goal or responsibility
- Jotting down the promises you make so you can check that you're living up to them
- Setting measurable, individualized goals that align with your personal needs
- Posting encouraging visual reminders around your mirror, on your wall or elsewhere to help motivate yourself to meet a goal or responsibility
- Attending office hours with professors to keep on top of class projects so you don’t fall behind
- Sharing goals with someone you trust as an accountability buddy, and doing the same for that person, too
“Nobody likes the feeling of letting others down—or, for that matter, letting ourselves down,” according to National University’s “Eye on the Prize: Tips for Staying Motivated in College” blog post. “That’s why accountability, despite being a deceptively simple concept, plays such a major role in keeping us motivated. When we know we’re accountable for our decisions and actions, most of us naturally want to follow through on our promises, and feel uncomfortable when we don’t.”
Sources: The Learning Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Gallup.com, 6/3/19
Check out training and facilitation tools like this one within our BRAND NEW Building Students’ Soft Skills resource to help them contribute, connect, learn and thrive.
