Why only I can hold myself accountable

As the inspiration comes back to me to blog, I have thought about how I am going to keep myself motivated.  I get that trying to build a platform of readership again is going to take some time, and can be very discouraging, but I also know not to focus on numbers at this point in the process, but to just learn again the joy of public blogging and trust the results to God.  Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t seek out wise counsel, which would be from other bloggers and writers online, but no one is going to make me show up here; I am either going to want to write or not.  And it isn’t even a matter of want, because sometimes our feelings and flesh get in the way, where we tend to make excuses.  We have all had good intentions of starting something and not following through because it was hard, we were tired; pick your reason.  But this I know, for someone who in different seasons has looked for accountability in others in different areas, the bottom line is that people just fail you.  I can think of countless times of trying to make spiritual friendships with others and have nothing come out of it.  I can also recall recently when I tried to get back into walking, that  me and my cousin talked about walking in the mornings, but guess what?  She never called, I got busy with other things, and so it goes.  In all of this, over the many years, I have continued to learn that God is my sole help.  Now, I don’t want to sound like a lone-ranger Christian, because I’m not, I’ve been active in all the churches that I have attended and served at, and I have made intentional efforts to connect with others as best I could, but in the end, people get busy in their own lives, they hold different values than you do, and for that reason things don’t seem to stick.   Values really is the key, and for those who get how to look to what one values is also key.  You can talk about values, but unless you actually believe and implement them, they don’t do much good. Example, I know it’s beneficial to my health to eat right and exercise, but if I don’t find a way to do that, that works for me, it’s not going to produce any results.  I must learn to value at healthy lifestyle by learning first what that means to me, and then find a way to put that plan into action by setting small realistic, achievable goals.  This is why I like using the Franklin Covey planner because it helps me to write my values down, this way, I slowly learn to hold myself accountable for the things that matter to me.  Now I have to admit, I have had a small planning hiatus, which I am getting back into, but when I was not doing it on a daily basis, I was more frustrated and couldn’t figure out why I felt stuck in different areas. It was because I took my focus off what mattered most to me, and started to just to the “day in-day out” thing, which began to drain me in different ways. Another thing that I have had to come to terms with is all the noise around us, especially in social media.  One of the things I am learning in a better way this time blogging is that I cannot listen to every conversation out there that may be beneficial to me.  I really have to evaluate each season that I am in and decide what conversations I want to be a part of.  I’ve done this by un-liking certain facebook pages that perhaps were helpful say in my seminary and ministry season, but right now just don’t provide what I need or even value to a point.  As our seasons shift, so must the tools and information that we use shift as well.  I think of technology and have seen a few posts on how the typewriter is making a comeback, I’ve also seen records make a comeback in some bookstores as well. Great things to own, but are they helpful to me in this season?  Probably not.  I love typing, but doing it on a laptop is much more efficient in many ways then on a typewriter.  Same with records, I had a lot of them growing up, but today, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy them as much as I once did, thanks to the convince, quickness and selection of my music now at my fingertips on my IPhone that goes anywhere with me and fits in my pocket.   Getting back to holding myself accountable, we all have to learn different ways to stay motivated and productive in the different seasons in our lives.  And as  much as I love to learn from others and grow, I also have learned that what works for one person, doesn’t work for everyone.  So as I get back into blogging, and the other areas of my life, I am the CEO of me.  Just like no one else can tell my story the way I do, no one else can live my life the way it needs to be lived.  As I call on God to assist me to be a good steward of my time and talents, he will show me the way, just as He did with this post.  I wasn’t looking to write about accountability, but He brought it to mind, and said it’s a good place to start.