This makes eleven. Eleven articles since I joined a writer’s group. I’m actually quite surprised. I wrote them every other week and lost track of how many I completed until I looked back to see my finished work.
It’s not that the words poured out of me and time flew while having fun. Quite the contrary! There were many times when my article submission date was creeping toward me and I wanted to run the other direction. There were many times when I felt like I didn’t have a thought in my mind to share.
I said I wanted to write regularly, but did I really want to write? Or did I want completed written pieces – you know, like the fully baked cake…not the baking part, but the part where you get to sit down and enjoy the cake.
The writing part required me to be diligent about blocking uninterrupted time and making it happen. I needed something to keep my butt in the seat! Yep, I needed some accountability to push through when it wasn’t easy. After all, it’s hard to have written pieces if you don’t do the writing!
Have you had something you really wanted to do, and once you told someone about it, you kinda dreaded that you had to follow through?
That’s what happened to me once I signed up for this group – I would now be accountable. I told my husband I knew the writing group was something I should do…but I really wasn’t convinced that I wanted to do it. Speed ahead with many completed writing projects, I am abundantly clear why I put myself in this uncomfortable position. One of my clients calls it GSD – I joined to Get Sh!t Done.
Talk is cheap, let’s put your money where your mouth is.
Whether you are a regular New Year’s resolution setter or you set goals for yourself throughout the year, having an accountability partner is one of the best ways to keep yourself on track. It’s not surprising that the number of people who typically set New Year’s resolutions has dramatically dropped from an estimate of 43% a couple years ago to just 29% last year (CBS News). The success rate of keeping those resolutions is downright depressing!
Who wants to set themselves up for failure?
I would guess, the vast majority of people who did not stay committed to their vision were trying to do it alone. If they had a group or partner who they were accountable to (in addition to being accountable to themselves), I think the stats might be different.
There are many things we know to be true about goal achievement. Have your goal be something you want to achieve (this is essential), make it specific, make it measurable, make it realistic and start with small achievable steps. All good steps toward success AND they (the infamous they) often leave out the power of the partner, or partners, in crime.
With “living healthier” or “exercising more” consistently making an appearance at the top of goal lists, we can take a page out of the playbook from my work at Kaiser. When I was a counselor in their weightloss program, all the participants in my group had tried various programs to become healthier. The big obstacle that stood in their way? Riding solo. Plain and simple they did not have accountability beyond themselves.
It’s much harder to stay aligned with your goals when no one is watching!
Knowing they were not alone, and having peers cheer them along the path to wellness, far outweighed any content that I provided. My patients knew the stats, they knew what to do, they knew how to do it. The missing part was a sense of camaraderie and circling back to share both challenges and successes. Accountability for the win.
What’s on your list? You know, that thing that you really really want to do, but don’t. The thing that is ALWAYS on your list and consistently loses out to the other stuff. Assuming it’s something you really really do want, is it time to share accountability with someone else? It’s not that you aren’t good enough. You are.
Getting sh!t done is not a “good enough” issue. It’s an accountability challenge.
So who are you going to bring in for your next win?
