The Desperate Need for Accountability
How Impossible it Seems to be Found
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Ac.count.a.bil.i.ty
The fact or condition of being accountable (required or expected to justify actions or decisions;) responsibility.
It is not uncommon that people are subconsciously striving for the simple desire to be held accountable. The desire to stay on top of the actions in order to maintain responsibility is exhausting, and has become even more difficult to achieve with the distractions we face in the world. Cell phones, social media, YouTube, television, and so many more technologically based distractions will often pull us away from where we need to focus.
According to several studies, technology can have several negative neurological effects including reduced attention spans, dopamine-drive rewards where we receive pleasure from simple things like social media likes, texts messages, or other alerts we may receive on our phones.
The impact technology has on our brain also includes things such as how it effects our memory, giving us an overreliance on external digital tools for information retrieval, diminishing our ability to retain and recall information. It even has been show through MRI scans that technology has show altered brain structures.
I use technology as an example not because technology itself is evil. I use it as an example because it can pull us the hardest from the responsibilities we hold in our day to day lives. For example, when the kitchen needs to be cleaned the common response has become “ill do it, after one more episode, one more TikTok video, one more meme…”
Why we need Accountability
Because we have been struct with so many distractions that draw on dopamine highs, keeping us away from the responsibilities we have, one of the best things we can do is find some form, or someone who can help us stay accountable. This can seem impossible to accomplish. Finding someone who can help stay accountable is nearly dead, because someone who commits to it often is distracted from the responsibilities of their own lives and fail to maintain their own responsibilities such as the commitment they made to hold you accountable to your own.
With each moment we have no form of accountability, we fail to maintain our responsibilities, and the quality of our careers, relationships, status of living and more continue to fall apart, little by little. It may not be major chunks that fade away, but eventually those little cuts, turn into massive tears in the fabric of living.
What is the Solution
You may be asking, “What is the solution?” and the answer no one likes, there is no one set solution for everyone, and the foundation of every solution is simply to have and maintain the conscious desire to accomplish accountability of your own actions, and responsibilities, which adds another level of responsibility in maintaining that conscious effort to remain accountable.
It is an evil, never ending loop. Here are a few common recommendations to try,
Disconnect from technology, spend a period of time fasting whether it be an hour, several hours, or even days. Whatever you need in order to reprogram your focus and regain accountability of yourself. (You will go through technology withdraws as your dopamine high crashes.)
Find someone you can be accountability partners with, remember this adds responsibility to both you and the other individual, for you BOTH to maintain in order to keep each other accountable.
Use the enemy (technology) to keep yourself accountable. Set reminders on your phone, alarms to keep you on track, and messages telling you why you want to stay on top of your responsibilities.
At the end of the day, there is no one size fit all solution (there never is).
What are ways that you use to keep yourself accountable?