All right, so my last blog entry was pretty “head in the clouds” kinda dreamy, hopefully inspiring, which we all need once in a while, right? So how many of you actually took a step to make your dream a reality, or to bring yourself one step closer to a goal? EVERYONE? Awesome! (OK, I know, I am being facetious….just play along with me here for a sec.) So now what? What are you doing to continue your momentum? And who or what is going to hold you accountable? (Um…did he just say ACCOUNTABLE? What’s that???)
I am going to share with you a little story about accountability, and how it worked for me. I used to have a huge problem with biting my nails (I know…completely gross…not proud of it…but I’m only human.) I did it unconsciously until my friend at work who sat next to me said, “MARK! Stop biting your nails!!” She would remind me every day. And it got to the point to where I said, “I really need to do something about this.” So I told her that every time I bit my nails, or she caught me biting my nails, I would owe her 100 yen (Equivalent to about $1…at that time anyway…). The first day, I handed her a total of 1,000 yen. The next day, another 1,000 yen. I knew I needed to do something about this nail biting thing, or else I was going to go broke. Gradually, my nail biting became less frequent (and my wallet and social life thanked me whole-heartedly.) I even started counting how many times I bit my nails on the weekends and handed my friend the amount of money I owed for my transgressions. It was because I knew someone was holding me accountable for a goal that I set, that I eventually stopped biting my nails. To celebrate, my friend and I took the money I had saved up and went out for the most amazing Korean barbecue I have ever had (I won’t tell you how much money I ended up handing over to her, but let’s just say we ate very, very well.)
Why do we fail to accomplish goals we set for ourselves? One reason is because no one holds us accountable for these goals, or what we say we are going to do around them. How many of you have set goals, for example, at work, and the only time you look at them is when you’re writing your year-end review? I am guilty of being on both ends of that one, both as an employee and a manager. I would set goals for myself, but would never strive to complete them because my manager would never ask, “Hey Mark, how are you going with ABC?” As a manager, I know that I could have done a much better job reviewing goals with my staff and ensuring they were getting done.
So how can you guarantee that the goals you set for yourself, both short term and long term, get done? How can you ensure that you are being held accountable for the things you want to achieve? Here are a few ideas that might work for you:
1) Find someone to hold you accountable—Ask a friend, a co-worker, a coach, your partner, or anyone you trust to help hold you accountable for goals you set. Give them specifics on how you want to be held accountable. You can try meeting for lunch every week, having them send you a daily e-mail reminding you of your goal, or just doing regular check-ins to make sure that you are on track. Having someone on the outside not only to hold you accountable, but also to be your support and encouragement will help you speed down your road to success.
2) Create an accountability chart—Remember those “chore charts” you used to have on the refrigerator when you were a kid? You would put a sticker, or a star next to the name of the chore after you accomplished it? Do the same for your goal. Every time you accomplish something that brings you closer to your goal, put a star on that chart. It sounds extremely “Kindergarten style”, I know. But studies have shown that people become more confident and more empowered to do more with their goal if the visually/physically see progress. If you are not making progress, you will be able to see it, and will need to come up with a way to help you get from where you are now to where you want to be.
3) Form a “Goal Group”—Do you have a goal similar to someone you know? Maybe you want to run a marathon, and you have a friend or two who want to do the same. Form a group! Put a plan together of how you are all going to work together to keep each other motivated and on track. Having others around you with similar goals keeps you pumped up, and now you have several heads to come up with new and fun ideas on how to bring yourself closer to achieving that goal.
Accountability is key to achieving your goals. So now that you’re on your way, how are you going to hold yourself accountable so you can reach your goals?
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