The Art of Accountability - And Why It Changes Everything

By Brent Widman

Welcome to the Your Limitless Blog, If this is your first one - welcome. My hope is always the same: that you take something from this that actually changes how you think, how you act, and how you show up. The trick is to apply what you hear or read. Slow down and implement.

Today, accountability, where most of us lose it without even realizing it.

After the Bell Rings

I go back years ago, right after I graduated high school.

Think about high school for a second. When the bell rings, what happens?
You grab your stuff. You go to your locker. You head to the next class. You’ve got three, four, maybe five minutes. Bathroom break. Water. Quick conversation. Then you’re back in class. You don’t think. You just do. You are programmed to go to the next thing.

That bell creates structure.
Structure creates accountability.

Somewhere along the line we lose that.

I grew up in a small town. If I wasn’t in class, people knew. If Brent wasn’t there, it was noticed. This was accountability without having been told what to do. It was just part of life.

Then I graduated.

I went to college… kind of.

Some days I’d go to class.
Other days I’d go to the commons and play ping pong.
Grab food.
Hang out with friends.
This one is gonna date me… go to the arcade or bowling alley.
Sometimes we’d just go back to someone’s apartment and play video games.

There was no bell.
No one checking.
No accountability.

By the end of that year, my GPA was 1.1. You read that right.

I couldn’t play basketball because my grades weren’t good enough. I failed psychology. I was going to go to school to be a psychologist. So much for that I thought. It changed my trajectory just like that.

I had freedom, or so I thought. Just not the kind that helps you grow.

Where does it change?

The First Layer: People

The first thing I had to change was who I surrounded myself with.

I needed people who thought differently.
People who showed up differently.
People who had standards - wanted more in life.

That led me to the Army National Guard.

Basic training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training) taught me the art of accountability.
Getting up early. It was 3:30, 4:00 or no later than 4:30 am. We didn’t have a choice.
Doing hard things when you’re tired. This created something in me. Something I realized others don’t have or choose to have.
Showing up whether you feel like it or not. Many days I didn’t feel like it.

We all came from different backgrounds, different lives—but we shared a common purpose. We all shared accountability. We had no choice.

And that matters.

For you, that might not be the military.
It could be coaching.
A mastermind.
A leadership group.
A room where people don’t let you hide.

You’ve heard the phrase “you’re the product of the five people you surround yourself with.”
I’d challenge that.

Sometimes it’s fewer than five.
Sometimes it’s more.

The principle is the same.

If the people around you think it’s okay to:

• Show up late

• Skip workouts

• Drink every night

• Avoid responsibility

That standard becomes normal. It becomes you. Me. All of us. Or…

And here’s the hard truth:
Some people are holding you back. You may not even realize it.

We’ve even left companies because we felt we were being held back from what we wanted to build. That doesn’t mean those people were bad. It just means it wasn’t aligned anymore. This might be you. The difference is, you are allowing it. You. No One Else.

The Second Layer: Systems

I get it. Ho Hum… sounds boring. Stay with me here folks.

I get up at 5:00 AM every morning.
That’s my workout time.

Why?
Because I don’t want to “figure it out” later.
I don’t want it stealing time from my family.

It’s already decided.
That contract is written.
It’s non-negotiable.

That’s what a system is. I made it. I decided. Done. Are there times it doesn’t happen? Sure. Not often, but it does.

Your calendar.
When it’s on the calendar, you don’t debate it, you do it. You made that choice.

This is why people say they live and die by their calendar. It removes emotion and excuses.

Then there are scorecards.
Tracking:

• Workouts

• Meetings

• Calls

• Income-producing activities (IPAs), Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

• Time with family

Whether you call them IPAs or KPIs, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is tracking what matters.

A system is simply something that helps you get where you want to go - consistently.

Consistency doesn’t mean perfection.

Six days a week beats quitting after two.

The Third Layer: Identity

It becomes who you are.

At one point in my life, I was 30–40 pounds overweight.

I was in college, sitting at a bar watching MTV Spring Break. Again, dating myself! A guy named Jared sat down next to me. We were talking about working out, and I said, “Man, I haven’t worked out in forever.”

He said, “I go every day at 12:30, you can come if you want.”

I started going. I had someone. I surrounded myself with positive. Accountability. A person that was there when I didn’t want to be.

That was 25 years ago.

I haven’t gone less than four or five days a week since.

Why? It’s written.

Because it became who I am.

Top performers aren’t gifted.
They’re not special.

They just hold themselves to a different standard.

Once that standard becomes your identity, you won’t go back.

If I gained 40–50 pounds, people would say, “What’s wrong with Brent?”
If I stopped growing, stopped leading, stopped building—people would notice.

Not because I’m special.
Because that’s the standard that’s been built.

Your Challenge:

When you’re done with this, I want you to do one thing:

Pick one or two things to track.

That’s it.

• workouts

• calls

• meetings

• personal development

• getting a coach

Track them.
Do them consistently.
Build on them.

Watch them become what you do.
And then who you are.

That’s the art of accountability.
And becoming the person you want to be?

That part is up to you.

You want to talk? DNAcall.com. Let’s set it up and see if it’s time for you to do the things you know you are capable of.