Accountability Technique: Get Hired

Accountability: anything or anyone that helps us gain mental leverage to achieve the results we desire. —The Accountability Stop

Another accountability method that we should consider: we can find a job aligned with the goal we want to be accountable for.

This technique automatically incorporates other techniques we’ve discussed: 

• A job typically comes with deadlines and schedules built in.
• Jobs often have performance measurements built in.
• The company may have benchmarking metrics so we don’t even have to do it in secret.
• Work often happens in teams, creating accountability for everyone involved.

Payday

Perhaps the best part of this accountability technique is that we get paid to do the thing we want to be doing. Here are some examples of how this might look:

• If we want to get in better physical shape, we could join the military or take a job at a local gym.
• If we want to travel more, we could get a job with an airline or become a tour guide.
• If we want to be outdoors, work with plants, or be a better gardener at home, we could get a job with a landscape company.
• If we want to read more, we might find a job at a bookstore or local library.

A job doing what we want to do may not pay enough to live on. We can consider whether a part-time position in addition to our current job would be an option. 

• If we want to improve our social skills, meet more people, and become more outgoing, we could look for a part-time job in retail. 
• If we have a goal to eat better, maybe look for a part-time job at a nutritionist’s office or a local natural foods market.
• If we want to improve our wardrobe or style, we could find a part-time job at a stylish boutique.
• If we want to write music, maybe we could free-lance as a jingle writer. (A career path suggested in Tick, Tick …Boom!)

For Accountability’s Sake

If our day job provides plenty of money, another related path to accountability would be volunteering. 

• If we’d like to learn to build a house, we could volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.
• If we’d like to make a positive impact on children’s lives, we could offer to build tree-houses or make toys for kids. We could also volunteer at a church day-care service.
• If we’d like to make more of our own art, we could volunteer at a local community art center.

What Kind of Employer Would You Be?

Finding a job for personal accountability can have its pitfalls. The phrase “the cobbler’s children have no shoes” has lived on long past the age of cobblers making shoes. If we take on a job for money, we may spend so much time on the job that we don’t have time for the personal goal we were hoping to move forward. Also, it’s possible we will kill our interest in our hobby by putting the pressure of money on it. What we started to do for fun becomes a job and inherently not fun. Here are questions we might ask ourselves and our potential employers:

• Will we have some opportunity to work on our own projects?
• Does the job come with perks that are useful, such as free gym time or free books to read?
• Will we get training and advice from our boss to improve our own skills?
• Have other people in this line of work succeeded in what we’d like to do? Anecdotally, I’ve heard that if we want to direct plays or movies, do not be an assistant director. We’ll forever be assisting someone else and never seen as having a vision of our own.

Be aware, of course, that employers are looking for the benefit that we bring to them. They’ll expect our work to be of more benefit to them than what they’re paying us. But if answers to the questions above are positive, then maybe we should give the job a try.

What’s Your Account?

Have you ever thought about switching jobs or careers? Is that new job daydream actually a method to be accountable for personal goals?