How Being Accountable will Help you Reach Your Goals
We’ve been talking quite a bit about setting and achieving goals and also about why you might be failing at your goals. I talked in my last post about how having an accountability partner is a must in order to keep you on track for any goal you have for yourself. I’ve also talked about systems and tools I’ve used to hold myself accountable. I wanted to elaborate on 3 ways you can practice accountability when setting and achieving goals.
#1 Get an accountability partner
Accountability Partners Keeps you focused
When you’re able to communicate your ideas to someone else, that other person is able to see inside your situation from an outside perspective and can offer some insights on the things that might work and things that won’t. They are able to help keep you focused on the end goal instead of focusing on the miscellaneous tasks that turn into procrastination… y’all, I’m the queen of this! The moment I get a little uncomfortable in the stage of reaching a goal, I start searching for other things to keep me busy so that I can procrastinate on the thing that is making me so uncomfortable. Don’t fall into that trap… having someone hold you accountable will help keep you focused!
They Help you measure your success
A really good mentor will be someone that can help you measure your success. They can help define what success is… because success is not just the end goal friends. The joy is in the journey. This person will help keep you focused on the little steps along the way and view those as successes!
They Will hold you responsible
Ever agreed to have a workout buddy and by day 3 you’re saying, “I just can’t do this anymore….” and your friend says, “No, no… come on, you can do it.” She gives you that last push you need to get into the gym! Then you leave the gym grateful for your friend who encouraged you to put your gym clothes on. You’re so not alone!
Have someone hold you responsible for the little steps along the way. Down to pulling your hair up and putting your clothes on. Because friends, you will find yourself saying, “I don’t know if I can do this anymore?!?!” and you’ll need that healthy push from time to time.
Accountability Partners Will accelerate you forward
Because of everything else mentioned above, they will help accelerate you forward. That’s just the byproduct of having someone to hold you accountable.
#2 Hire a mentor or coach
If you don’t have anyone in your life that fits the mold of everything I’ve talked about, you can always hire a mentor or coach. You can also get into some Facebook groups and connect with some others and then hold each other accountable.
The key here is to start right now by holding yourself accountable and finding someone else who will!
What to look for in a partner, mentor or coach
The individual isn’t someone who is going to be negative about all your ideas but will offer wise advice and steer you in a better direction. Just because they give you a slightly different idea of perspective doesn’t mean they are trying to put you down.
This person is also someone who has a track record themselves for achieving their goals. You know the saying, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future?” The same rule applies here… if you are with someone that doesn’t have a great track record themselves of attaining a goal, then that person is probably not going to be a great accountability partner.
#3 Hold yourself accountable
This is the biggest one of everything on this list! If you aren’t holding yourself accountable, then how can anyone else? If you are having a hard time holding yourself accountable, then maybe it’s time to revisit some of your goals and make sure they are something that you’re absolutely passionate about. You might also see this post.
As I’ve mentioned before, I am very much the person to just go after a goal with everything in me. I’m a crazy passionate person – sometimes to my own fault – so I find it incredibly easy to hold myself accountable. I have a little secret, the reason I am so good at holding myself accountable is because I have an accountability partner and I have created tools that allow me to track my goals. Having goals written on paper helps me hold myself accountable and take the steps needed to accomplish big dreams. Something as simple as marking off my progress (like on the coffee cup section of the printables below) keeps me in check and keeps me going.
What about you? How do you use accountability to accomplish your goals?
