Today, let's talk about accountability and why some people think it means fixing the blame for what goes wrong.

When I am giving a talk or a seminar and I get to the part about accountability, I find that some people begin to feel defensive. Maybe they are struggling with a life-threatening illness, or maybe they have been in a severe automobile accident and are feeling like victims. They say things like "Are you trying to tell me that I am to blame for this? Do you want me to believe that this is my fault?" And I say, "No, the accountability I am talking about has nothing to do with blaming or faulting."

You see, the word "accountability" is an ancient Roman term that at its Latin root means "to stand forth and be counted." What I am talking about is standing up more in your life, and making it count. And if you realize that you might have had a hand in creating something - yes, even an accident or illness - without blaming yourself, you will also realize that you have the power to do something about it, to change it.

Everything you see in your life is something you had some part in creating, even if it was just to stand by and do nothing and let it happen. When you decide to take accountability, you make this creation a conscious process. Winston Churchill once said that, "The price of greatness is responsibility." So take that responsibility for your life, and great things will happen.