Accountability is all about documenting your plan, taking action on what you’ve planned and then tracking your accomplishments to your plan. As you can see, it all starts with a plan and writing it down. If you don’t figure out what you need to do and write it down, there’s nothing to track and therefore there’s no accountability.

You have Dreams of how you see your business and your life looking. Dreams are wonderful and absolutely necessary. Once you write down your dreams as your vision, they then become Goals you can work on attaining. And now that you have written Goals, you can begin planning how you will accomplish them. Planning is the first step. Once you have the Action Steps planned out as what you are going to do and when you are going to do it, you can then begin working on accomplishing your goals.

This is the next step – Take Action. It’s important to take action on what you have planned. It does no good if you write out a plan of Action Steps and then you go and do something completely different. That plan contains the Action Steps needed to be completed for you to accomplish your Goals –which came from your Dream. See how it all fits together?

So let’s get back to you working through your list of Action Steps. You want to keep track of the Action Steps you complete. This is the next step and allows you to see the progress you are making toward reaching your Goal. Tracking your Action Steps also helps you to stay focused and on the path you have set for yourself. Now that’s not to say if things come up that causes you to need to change your goal, you cannot make that change. Of course you can – just start back at the beginning and write your new Plan, Action Steps with estimated timings and then Take Action and Track to this new plan.

Planning is all about estimating and forecasting and in our case, we are forecasting the work and schedule we believe is needed to accomplish our goal.

Taking Action is required in order to work through the plan and schedule.

Tracking is the step that is maybe the most important because without the information you gain from monitoring your progression through your list of Action Steps, you don’t truly know whether you are advancing towards fulfilling your goals or just staying busy. The information you get during your tracking activities help you determine if your plan is still good or needs to be tweaked.

A Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of Accountability is “the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.” A definition of Accountable is “required to explain actions or decisions to someone” and finally a definition of Account is “a description of facts, conditions, or events.”

So to relate these definitions back to what we have been talking about – Accountability is accepting responsibility for the Plan and schedule you create and provide status specifically on Action Step completions against that plan. That status can be given to just you or shared with an Accountability Partner or even better with your Accountability Coach. Accountability gives you reasons to CELEBRATE each of your accomplishments and it feels great to share the celebration with your Accountability Partner or Coach especially when you attain a Goal you have been working on for a long time.

I’d love to celebrate with you – what goals are you working on and what’s our Celebration date?

Debbie O’Grady teaches women who have had successful careers working for others how to build successful businesses of their own. She teaches what she has accomplished herself. After having a successful career in Corporate America, Debbie moved on to build not just one but several successful businesses. Known for her patient yet firm approach that holds your feet to the fire, Debbie’s clients call her “The Queen of Accountability.” As a former Project Manager, Debbie uses her planning and monitoring skills to teach you how to set Goals and Action Steps that stretch and keep you moving forward. In a loving and encouraging way, she mentors and guides you with practical insights and experienced suggestions to be productive and build your own successful business. You can learn more about Debbie and her Accountability program offerings by visiting her site and blog http://RevenueRecharge.com/blog and connecting with her on Facebook http://facebook.com/RevenueRecharge