When we talk about accountability of self, we're really talking about leading by example which is the way we more commonly refer to it. While the two phrases are completely interchangeable, either way it is an absolutely critical skill as a human being to have.
When we as human beings fail to execute this skill at a high level the results can be rather catastrophic. In essence, in order to succeed and not struggle at anything we ever do we need to make sure we get this one right!
We have some pretty ancient stories that go back a long way into human history that clearly show how great our struggle can be with what seems a simple skill.
One of my favorite stories and examples of this, because I find it just cringingly awful and hilarious at the same time, can be found in the account of what happened in the Garden of Eden.
Most of us learn this story when we are little kids. In it, we find the account of how Adam and Eve decided to eat forbidden fruit from the tree, and because of this act, we then have sin enter the world.
After they both eat the forbidden fruit, God comes around and he asks Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Adam's response to God is absolutely cringe-worthy (as well as equally hilarious, and awful) and ultimately is one of the biggest blunders of all time.
Adam's response is this, “The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit of the tree and I ate it.” When we read through this the first time, what we tend to focus on is the word “woman”.
Every man out there who's married cringes, as does every woman who's married to a man that has done this before as this approach has never worked out well, and I guarantee you it didn't probably work out well for Adam this time either.
However, there is another word in that sentence that we tend to overlook because we get so focused on the fact that he wanted to blame Eve and referring to her only as “ woman”. The word that really stands out is the word “you”.
Adam felt like in this particular instance, his best course of action to pass the buck, not only to his wife, but also God. He boldly is stating “The woman YOU put here with me…"
In essence what he is saying is this: God, if you hadn't done this, then I wouldn't have done what I did. So this is really your fault.
Again, while we cringe this is one of the things we as human beings do when confronted with our own mistakes. It's a common defense mechanism.
We tend to try to pass-the-buck and play the “blame game” when we fail to have good accountability of self. That is never a good approach and will quickly destroy our integrity and trust with others and that makes it really hard to succeed at ANYTHING we ever set out to do….
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