13 Methods of Holding Yourself Accountable for Creative Success

13 Methods of Holding Yourself Accountable for Creative Success

As a Creator, you are pretty much your own boss when it comes to your creative life.

That means that your degree of achievement is entirely up to you.

You have no managers checking up on you, correcting your mistakes, and keeping you accountable for your work ethic.

So, how do you manage yourself? What steps do you take to stay in a state of high achievement?

These 13 tricks may help you!

Track Your Progress With a Calendar You can use an online calendar like Google Calendar, but I would recommend using an actual physical calendar, preferably something pretty big.

You can set end of day, week, and monthly goals and mark off what you’ve accomplished.

You might miss some days, and that’s okay.

But it’s important to see whether you are missing more days than you are succeeding.

This is a way to hold yourself accountable for how much you are accomplishing and find ways to improve based on that reality.

Use the Buddy System Tell a few other people what your goals are and ask them to help keep you accountable.

This is good reinforcement.

However, this does come with a warning.

This resource, if misused, can lead to complacency.

You do not want to depend too heavily on other people for your own success.

This doesn’t help you grow and may be a violation of others’ boundaries if relied on too heavily.

This is a good device to use as a check in, but it should ​only​ be used as a check in.

Remind Yourself Why It’s easy to get off track and feel unmotivated when you are in the throws of difficult gruntwork.

Video editing sucks. Mixing audio is tedious. Editing a rough draft is meticulous.

However, no matter how tough these things are, they need to be done.

Instead of focusing on the work itself, which is never as bad as anticipated, remind yourself what your end result will be.

When your work is finished, you will feel so gratified!

Remind yourself why this is fulfilling for you.

If you keep your eye on the prize, motivation will be much easier.

Prioritize Holding yourself accountable also means having your priorities in the right place.

If you prioritize socializing, gaming, or watching tv over your life’s work, then you will never actually fulfill your life’s work.

So, you have to ask yourself what you really care about.

If you try to fit your creative work into your schedule instead of the other way around, you are going to run into problems.

You will never have time.

Making your goals an actual priority means structuring your schedule around those goals.

Carve out actual time in your schedule.

This may mean sacrificing other things in the name of your art form.

Cultivate Discipline Making the life that you want for yourself means cultivating discipline, and sometimes, sheer willpower.

Be willing to push yourself.

Force yourself off the couch.

Force yourself to work on your creative projects for a while after work, even though you’re tired.

Honestly... motivation and inspiration don’t show up everyday, so if you’re relying purely on that, you’re going to fail.

However, discipline is a skill that everybody can learn that will consistently show up for you.

Learn Continuously Creating isn’t just about doing what you’ve always done.

There needs to be constant growth.

Sure, some of growth is just practice and doing, but much of it involves training and learning.

If you’re not constantly studying your craft - methods, foundations, culture, teachers - you’re not giving yourself all the resources you need to continuously improve.

You should be reading the right books, doing the right research, and even attending the right events.

This is how you master your field from the inside out.

Review Yourself You can do this in a journal, on a whiteboard, or something similar.

Make it either a weekly or monthly practice to check in with yourself and review.

Compare what you intended to get done with what you really did get done.

Measure the gap between the two.

How can you close the gap in the future?

What habits need to be changed to make that happen?

Be Consistent

Many people, especially creative types, will get bursts of energy in which they feel very passionate, motivated, and inspired.

Oftentimes, these random bursts of energy are the only times anything gets done.

But these short periods of energy bursts are few and far in between.

These energies are intense when they happen, but there is no consistency.

It is so intense, in fact, that this inspired energy crashes and burns hard.

You must cultivate the maturity to manage your energy and remain consistent despite these emotional surges that come and go.

Manage your energy. Don’t let your energy manage you.

Don’t Prematurely Over-Publicize Yourself Studies have shown that telling people what you plan on doing gives your brain just as much of a dopamine rush as actually accomplishing what you plan. This is a dangerous drug.

Essentially, saying “I am going to be a famous actor” is just as much of a high as actually BEING a famous actor.

My tactic in avoiding this is by choosing to be very private about what I’m actually working on.

I don’t tell many people my specific goals. That way, I don’t get the dopamine rush.

The only way to achieve that high, then, is by actually making stuff happen.

This works really, really well and is highly motivating for me.

Try it and see what happens.

Make Friends With Your Artistic Self Be okay with where you’re at.

Sure, in the grand scheme of things, you are not where you want to be. That is a good thing.

That means you have ambition and don’t accept complacency.

However, it is highly beneficial to feel joy during the journey.

It is possible to cultivate a friendship with the present moment.

It’s okay to be where you are.

If you are too uncomfortable with your position in life, or are looking at other people’s successes rather than your own, you might shut down completely.

You may alternatively start living in a fantasy world where you spend so much time projecting where you want to be that you sacrifice living in the moment.

If you aren’t living in the moment, you can’t put in the actual work it takes to get you someplace different.

Self-care, self-love, and self-appreciation are powerful tools that can help you cultivate a mindset that supports your success.

Get In the Habit of Saying No If you’re spinning too many plates, then you can’t focus on your real work.

Try taking a minimalist approach to your life by weeding out what doesn’t serve you.

This could mean saying no more often than you’re used to - it could be about making certain plans or even things like doing favors or starting new projects.

It might even be saying no to creative projects or job opportunities if they aren’t the right ones for you right now.

If you spread yourself thin in directions that ultimately won’t matter, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. Only keep what is essential.

Reward Yourself Reward systems are a great tool.

Giving yourself something every time you accomplish tasks will activate the reward system in your brain in an orchestrated way.

You can reserve big rewards for big tasks and little rewards for little tasks.

This is basically like giving your kid-brain a piece of chocolate after eating a healthy meal.

Part of being successful is parenting yourself. I’m not kidding.

Make a Statement of Commitment Write a contract with yourself and keep it somewhere you can see it.

This is a contract that only you can honor or violate and it is up to you to take it seriously and prioritize it.

This may not work for everyone, but it is very helpful for some types.

I personally have a lot of pride, and it works brilliantly on my ego to maintain contracts.

It feels fortifying. ​This serves as a constant reminder that you are fulfilling your life’s purpose by doing these tasks.

Final Things Using real physical material to help you out in your accountability is really important.

This is because if you are diligent and use these tools properly, the physical plane of reality can’t lie.

You can lie to yourself on a thought level, but form never lies. The evidence stares you in the face.

If you don’t catalog what you are doing and not doing, your reptilian brain will make up a story for you.

This comes riddled with excuses and false memories of how you’ve been spending your time.

You don’t want this. It may feel good at first, but fantasies aren’t healthy. Save the fantasy world for your creations. Not for your real life.

Accountability can feel like a slap in the face at first.

That’s because it is a very grounded concept that is a measure of real maturity.

It isn’t for the faint of heart. It is for the tried and true - ​which you are!​ Don’t give up. Don’t get discouraged. Remember, it’s supposed to feel a little uncomfortable.

That’s how you know you’re growing! You can do this.