Success is your personal responsibility and not an entitlement! You can not assume nor expect that others will 'do for you' in the quest for your own personal desires; that only happens for children and not grown adults! Many who have aspirations of achieving success in various aspects of their lives often times fall short. All too frequently the cause for this can be traced back to a lack of personal accountability for their own efforts. There is no doubt that having goals and objectives is an important step towards improving yourself or your situation. However setting goals while also taking responsibility for your own efforts to achieve them is how to become successful.

When you take personal accountability of your own actions while planning or pursuing anything worthwhile you have taken the first step towards eventually reaching your goals. Just to want something however is not good enough; this desire MUST be reinforced by some type of proactive behavior on your part.

Let's look at 5 ways taking personal accountability influences and determines the level of success you will achieve

Vision

You and only you know what it is that you want and how it will affect your life. The vision needed to put together a realistic plan can only come from within the person who has the desire to make this vision a reality.

This is not something you can 'outsource' to another since these visions are rooted in your own dreams.

Goals and Objectives

Once you have established your vision you will next need to put together the 'steps' you will have to take to make this a real part of your life. Your goals and objectives are the actual steps you will need to take to make your vision your reality.

Once again only you are familiar with the 'full context' of what your vision really is and what it means to you so only you can establish the 'unique' goals needed to achieve this dream. After all your vision is just that, a dream, until you succeed in making it your reality.

It is also important that you keep these goals realistic. They must be something you have the necessary skills and resources to accomplish otherwise you will be wasting your time.

Plan

You now must put together a 'workable' plan that will be effective in helping you reach your goals. As with every other step that has come before only you know what it is you are capable of regarding your skills, patience, resolve and resources.

Execution

As we spoke of earlier it is not reasonable or realistic to depend upon the efforts of others for you to accomplish your own goals. The plans you have laid out now require your personal involvement. Nobody can breath, walk or talk for you so why would you expect different in the pursuit of YOUR OWN goals? The actions needed to accomplish these goals must be by you and it is up to you to be sure these actions are carried out correctly.

Charting Progress

If some system is not developed or implemented for charting your progress there is no way of determining how far you have gone and how far you have to go. A sense of measurement is necessary to also keep you motivated by reminding you of the progress you have already made.

By taking personal responsibility of your own actions in the pursuit of goals and objectives you have set increases your chances of reaching your goals. Achieving success in any situation is dependent upon the active role you play in both the planning process and by taking the necessary actions. To become successful in any aspect of your life you MUST become actively involved in the 5 step process as we reviewed above. To believe your personal achievements can be realized through the efforts of others is foolhardy and will only set you up for repeated failure and disappointment.