Balance beams still cause a wave of anxiety in me. One of my worst gym class memories was somersaulting off of a balance beam. It wasn’t a high beam and I landed on a mat, but I still got a big nasty bruise down my back. Why was somersaulting on a balance beam even a thing?
Not unlike the balance beam, the words personal accountability used to make my shoulders tense up and my stomach turn. They invited my inner mean girl out to play. If I was accountable, I needed to get things right. I needed to know. I needed to control. And all of that all of the time. Perfectly. Otherwise, I might fall off of the balance beam. And we already know that really hurts.
It’s taken years for me to learn how to step out of my not-so-comfortable comfort zone of perfectionism and redefine my relationship with personal accountability. It now includes self-care, space, and forgiveness.
I now see the balance beam as the calculated risks I take to grow and evolve. Personal accountability is the mat that supports me when I fall off the beam.
Here’s my top ten list of what personal accountability is versus what it is not:
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