Is It Time to Re-label Self-Care as Self-Accountability?

We talk about the definition of self-care all the time. Understanding that self-care means something different to each one of us is key to practicing it. However, part of mastering self-care is self-accountability, because when you think about it, neglecting self-care in any of its forms is not taking responsibility for your wellbeing.

What Does Self-Accountability Mean

Having personal accountability means you’re fully responsible for your choices and action. When you think about self-accountability, you’re the first and last line of defense of what you set your mindset to achieve.

As an accountable person, you can see what needs to change and take action to make it happen without waiting for others to point out to you what’s happening. But beyond setting your goals, having self-accountability means you can call yourself out for mistakes and missteps.

Benefits of Self-Accountability

The definition of self-accountability, in my opinion, is the benefit of this whole concept. But, let’s explore how being self-accountable can improve various aspects of everyday life.

• You’re less anxious or stressed because you can have an action plan.
• Your productivity will improve thanks to better time management skills.
• You’re more likely to feel content with work and relationships because you can control how you think about these two.
• You will have a better grasp of your long-term goals because you can hold yourself accountable.
• Your personal and professional interactions will be more positive.

How Self-Accountability Is Related to Self-Care

It’s easy to associate self-accountability with personal development; after all, we’re more likely to hold ourselves accountable for professional goals. However, when you think about it, self-care is the trendy word for accountability.

When we talk about self-care, we mention how it involves caring for yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally. By choosing to engage in any self-care activity, you’re essentially holding yourself accountable for caring for your body, mind, and spirit.

For people who struggle with the concept of self-care, calling it selfish, perhaps the solution would be to look at it from a self-accountability perspective. For example: self-care is taking time for yourself. Self-accountability would be to look at your calendar and make sure that no matter what, you have time for yourself at least once a week.

Are You Accountable for Your Self-Care Journey?

We all love to think that self-care is natural and never feels like work. In reality, self-care takes accountability, tracking, and hard work. We can’t just put on a face mask and call it self-care. The idea is to be mindful of why we’re putting on a face mask – caring for our skin’s health – and how it makes us feel. Usually, we feel good afterward because we took time for ourselves to destress and decompress.

Ask yourself these questions to see if you’re accountable for your self-care:

• Do you have defined goals? If not, try this method for writing down goals.
• Do you have a plan to track your progress? If not, try this strategy to track your goals and your progress.
• Are you aware of your unhealthy habits? If you’re not sure, learn about some bad habits.
• Do you make mindful decisions? If not, learn more about being mindful.

A Note from GR8NESS

Whether you think self-care should be self-accountability or not, there’s no denying that both concepts are related. For now, I invite you to be mindful about your decisions and hold yourself accountable not only for your actions, but also for those actions you never take out of fear, or your negative self-talk bringing you down. All of these are part of becoming self-accountable in the name of self-care.