THE ACCOUNTABILITY MIRROR

I mention a lot how important it is that you learn to be accountable to yourself. It is quite difficult to find a way to be accountable to yourself, especially if you have never been able to do it before. However, in reading David Goggins’ book ‘Can’t Hurt Me’ I feel as though the best way has been uncovered. The accountability mirror. David Goggins lived a life of set back, rejection, racism, obesity, low grades and so on. One day, he headed home and seen himself in the mirror.

What is key to appreciate here is that when you look at yourself in the mirror, it is nothing to do with what you are looking at but who is looking back at you. The person looking back at you is the real you and you should not go easy on this person. David Goggins spent a long time in front of the mirror on this particular day telling himself some home truths. ‘You are not smart enough, you are over weight, you are going to fail, you need to be stronger, you cannot blame these bullies your entire life’ and so on. He was real with himself. Being real with yourself is something you probably struggle to do and the truth of it is, you have probably had it to easy.

You are over weight and you tell yourself you should ‘lose a bit’ when in reality, you know you should lose a lot. You are failing exams, you tell yourself ‘I want to pass’ but the reality of it is, you are not working hard enough to do so. There is so much more to it and you are going to easy on yourself and you need to go in a lot harder. You usually pull yourself away from people who tell you the truth about yourself because you are offended to hear it. True?

David Goggins decided to write a task, every single day, on a sticky note and stick it to his mirror. ‘Dress smarter’, ‘do my chores every day without being asked’, ‘make my bed’ and so on. The mirror became his accountability coach because everyday he would go home, look at the sticky note and then take a look at himself. He would know if he had let himself down or if he had achieved the task he set himself.

The lesson here is the value of being real with you and who you are. Again I tell you, take responsibility, stop lying to yourself. Help yourself live the best life you possibly can. Be accountable to you.

YOU’RE PERFECTLY CAPABLE.