PDA: Public Display of Accountability

10bellevue.blogspot.com

Welcome!  How are the reviews going?  Before we go on to our question of the week, l need to tell you about myself.  Before my marriage and then Effectual Magazine, I was a confirmed quitter.  I had no staying power at all with anything that got too difficult.  I will quit an argument even if I was in the right just to keep the peace.  I will take the back seat in a relationship and allow myself to be maltreated if only to avoid exercising my right especially in conflict.

I will stop going to a particular place just to get myself away from anything that will turn the attention on me for too long.  I quit at every turn. I will give up on a grand dream very easily once I hit my first resistance.  I didn't quit on education however, because I wasn't sure I will be alive to tell the story; it seemed my parents were serious about killing me if I flunked out...

But then I realized that the reason I kept quitting was because no one expected me to deliver on any promise to them... I refused to be accountable to anyone, and that meant I could do what I wanted!  Even with Effectual, for at least four years, I ran below the radar because I didn't want to be accountable. When it dawned on me that I was going to keep going round in circles except I shaped up, I opted to have a very public release of the magazine.  We had the press present and we had people in the room whom I respected and will hate to let down.

That day most thought I was just birthing a dream, but for me it was more than that, it was the beginning of my commitment to ensure that this will not die too!  Since then, I have been tempted to quit a hundred times but then I remember standing before those men and women that day, making a promise to deliver excellent life impacting content and the thought of upholding that promise keeps me going.

Today's question is what will I commit to do differently, and to whom will I be accountable in 2013?  This question is more about looking at those things we had purposed to do at the start of 2012, and even started but somehow, we hit a resistance and rather than keep pushing, we quit.  Recognizing that we have pulled back on something we not only believe we can do but actually have the ability to do is a start.  Like I did with Effectual, step out and schedule a release date for that book, not in your mind but to people you don’t ever want to disappoint.

Pencil down a date when your office or business plans to hold that first Conference you have had on your schedule for years but have managed not to hold.  If you can, put adverts out to that effect.  I find that the pressure that comes with publicly displaying your intentions makes us feel accountable to the public and urges us on even when we would rather quit.  The truth is that first edition may not be the best that you can do, but it will be the start of many to come, especially if you get the ‘technology’ right the first time.

Public display of accountability is not about making empty boasts that we have no intention of following through on, it is however, a submission of our aspirations to others so that we can follow through.  The truth is that most people may never even come back to ask you why you didn’t follow through, but just knowing that someone may come back and ask you why, is enough motivation to go on.  For me it is another reason to ensure that I keep walking towards to my dream destination.

So before you do anything about 2013, ask yourself, how can I commit myself to a group beyond my family, so I can follow through rather than quit on this dream again?  You know something else, because God loves you very much, He will, amongst that crowd, pull out one person who will commit along with you and he or she becomes one key reason why you cannot afford to fail.

Despite my penchant for quitting, it has been years and I am still here.  So even for you, if you take the bull by the horns and publicly submit to be accountable you will make it NeverTheless… seriously I know you will make it.

You are loved!

Hugs

Sistar B