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The Art of Accountability

Guest post by: Cheri Ruskus

Article Overview: Each of us works stronger, steadier and more successfully when we add the Arty of Accountability to the mix of our life. It can be the one piece missing for many Entrepreneurs. Accountability can show up in Coaching and Masterminding with others of a like mindset. It is an art form in that is requires us to open our mind to the possibilities and then get really good at it. To in fact let it flow as easily as breathing some days.

The Art of Accountability

Don’t be timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment the more experiments you make the better. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Would you buy the fact that Accountability = Action? Let’s face it, when we are accountable for our results it makes us move. It started with our parents and moved forward to prominent figures that hold the cards in our world like the financial partners we may have in our businesses.

One of the reasons that I created the Victory Circles four years ago was to create a new form of accountability for myself. To have a peer of fellow, like minded, women entrepreneurs that I shared my business happenings with once per month. What became clearly relevant, from that very first meeting, is that it did make a big difference. In fact just opening my mouth and being honest about my business made a difference. Not that I was dishonest before, simply that I was starting to pay closer attention to what I was actually doing and thinking. Were my actions noteworthy of even talking about?

In our role of Entrepreneur it is important to think about those that we are accountable to. Those people who enhance our actions by their encouragement or on the opposite side of the spectrum dishearten us because of their discouragement. A spouse can be a wonderful supporter in our business but sometimes they are just to close to be objective. They may be over concerned with how our success or lack their of may effect the bottom line of the family unit. In this case, accountability can turn to fear or over concern that we will let them down. The result is that we start to jam ourselves us sometimes making us immobile

A big part of the Master Mind process that has become the foundation for the Victory Circles is understanding the ability to open ourselves up to others.

Napoleon Hill was the first person to write about the Master Mind process in the 1920’s. He took his cue from Andrew Carnegie a wealthy and successful businessman who utilized the mastermind philosophy in his regular meetings with other successful businessmen of that time. Mr. Hill discussed the necessity to open your mind in his book, Laws of Success. He discussed it this way:

There is no adequate reason why the average person should ever close their mind to fresh slants on life. But they do, just the same. Nothing is more tragic – or more common – then mental inertia. For every ten people who are physically lazy there are ten thousand others with stagnant minds. And stagnant minds are the breeding places of fear.



An old farmer in Vermont always used to end his prayers with this plea: “Oh, God give me an open mind!” If more people followed his example they might escape being hamstrung by prejudices. And what a pleasant place to live the world would be.



Every person should make it his or her business to gather new ideas from sources other than the environment in which he or she daily lives and works. The human mind becomes withered, stagnant, narrow, and closed unless it searches for new ideas.

Keeping mind these words of Mr. Hill, it is important to think about the accountability partner or partners(s) who work with us to enhance our way of thinking. As time has passed since the original Victory Circle we have created the Victory Buddy program in which members meet together on a regular basis, outside the monthly Master Mind meeting. Together they encourage each other to work and build on their business ideas and dreams. We have also created our Acceleration Membership, which includes monthly Business Coaching with the Facilitator of each Circle.

In the Victory Circles accountability is as important as breathing. It makes us move and take action, which bring our successes to the surface. This brings accountability into an art form that brings positive results. When presented in a manner we can actually digest, accountability assists us in letting our creative spirit bring many great things that lay inside of us to the light of day. It allows us to freely give the gifts we were put on this planet to provide. In this new mind set we are able to put away the negative beliefs that can sometimes immobilize us, leaving us to build a life and business based on real creative freedom.

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Article Tags: accountability, action, art form, business coaching, mastermind, mindset, possibilities, women entrepreneurs



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Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira


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