It makes a huge difference
Accountability is , by far, the factor that has had the greatest impact on the recent success I have had in achieving my goals. If you have ever set goals for yourself then had difficulty achieving them, it may be due to a lack of accountability; who is going to know if you don’t achieve them other than yourself? For me being accountable to myself isn’t usually enough, I need some help.
It only takes seven steps
If you want to quickly improve your success with achieving the goals you have set for yourself then try following these steps:
1. Find someone, or a few someones, who you can meet with to share your goals.
2. Think about what you would like to achieve in the upcoming week and write these goals down.
3. Meet with the person or group from number one and take turns discussing the goals you have set for the week.
4. Spend the week working on the goals you set for yourself.
5. At the end of the week meet with the group again. Discuss the goals you met in the previous week and the goals you missed,.
6. After everyone has discussed the previous week’s goals explain the goals you are going to achieve in the upcoming week.
7. Repeat, once a week.
This works for a few reasons: it makes you think about and prioritize your goals, it makes you write your goals down, it makes you talk about your goals out loud, and, most importantly, it makes you accountable to your group for the goals you have set.
Experiment One
Try it out. Set some goals for yourself this Sunday. Spend the week trying to achieve your goals. The following Sunday check in with yourself and see how many of the goals you reached.
Experiment Two
Now, try this:
1. Write down some goals for yourself on Sunday.
2. Call a friend and share your goals with them, or post your goals here on Sunday Night Success in the comments section under my goals for the week.
3. Spend the week trying to achieve your goals.
4. The following Sunday call your friend again to discuss the goals you reached and the goals you missed, or, post the goals you reached and the ones you missed here on Sunday Night Success in the comment section under my goals.
5. Repeat, once a week.
Notice a difference?
Looking for another way to improve your goal setting? Have you considered the time frame you use for setting your goals?
Here’s my goals for the week:
#1. Finish reading “The Birthing Partner.”
#2. Prepare all paperwork/notes/leave behind information for my final meeting with my first client.
#3. Keep a tidy house!
Chelsea.
Chelsea,
Check back on Sunday when I update what goals I achieved for the week and let me know if you were successful in meeting yours.
#1. Finish reading “The Birthing Partner.” COMPLETE.
#2. Prepare all paperwork/notes/leave behind information for my final meeting with my first client. COMPLETE (Barely).
#3. Keep a tidy house! (COMPLETE!)
Definitely helped to write them down. There’s no way I would have cleaned up tonight, if I hadn’t stated it in my goals.
Here’s my goals for this week
#1. Clean off the bookshelf in our room and find space for my Doula work.
#2. Find proper boxes for Eva’s room.
#3. Read at least 150 pages of my next book.
#4. Keep a tidy house.
#5. Limit Eva’s TV time to 45 min/day. That feels like a horrible thing to have to say…but it’s true. TV is an easy out these days!
#6. Research a pre natal class that I can observe.
Chelsea.
Congratulations on achieving all of them Chelsea. One thing you may want to try, especially with “keep a tidy house” is break that goal into a few smaller actions so you know specifically what needs to be done in order to keep a tidy house, instead of it being a general idea. So you might change “keep a tidy house” to:
Vacuum main floor.
Vacuum upstairs.
Clean bathroom.
Wash dishes every night.
Then if you miss only one of them you will still feel like you had some success. By breaking it into action steps you will have more success.
[...] Want to be even more successful with your goal achievement? Then add some accountability to your goal setting. [...]
Jeremie,
I’m a huge believer in this method and have great accountability partners in my life. Since I work with 1-person business owners, I know they too can get bogged down and feel isolated and overwhelmed. While we tend to be good about getting things done for our clients, our own projects fall by the wayside. These are things like accounting, marketing and maintenance, not to mention exercise and tending to personal relationships!
I look forward to sharing your blog with others who can benefit from this strategy.
Samantha,
Thank you for stopping by and thank you for the comments on the post. I truly believe that the more people who discover someone they can share their goals with, and be accountable with, the more people there will be succeeding in meeting their goals. My hope is that this site will be somewhere that people can learn how well this works, and, if they don’t have someone to be accountable with, they can use this site, or someone they meet on this site to become their accountability partner.
You are very lucky to have accountability partners in your life, I know I am lucky to have mine. I hope to hear more from you,
Jeremie
Let me tell you a little secret, come nearer, it is a secret:
- Everybody tells lies -
Yes, every one of us tells lies, especially to ourselves, that is especially visible in our remarkable ability to manufacture excuses…
I run a 4 times a week urgency/accountability call with business coaches; these coaches’ activity is to help business owners and CEOs be accountable to themselves. A prerequisite is the establishment of a “code of honor” that states the “rules of engagement”; one of these rules is the responsibility “to call it” AND “to take it” when called.
I noticed that “peer pressure” plays a great role in keeping people accountable to themselves… there seems to be nothing worse than going back to the team with unkept commitments.
The article’s advice to have a third party holding you accountable is pure gold; you should try it.
Fred,
The first time I met with my accountability group with an unfinished action I told a lie, so you are totally correct. I came up with the lamest excuse for not completing the action I had promised to complete.
The best part was, they were there for me, they called me on it, and I had to talk through my excuse, realize how lame it was, and become accountable for the fact that I hadn’t achieved what I said I would achieve.
Having someone to own up to is definitely a key, if not the key, to being more successful in achieving your goals.
Thanks for the comment Fred,
Jeremie
I need to be more accountable in the use of my time, or I’ll end up reading blogs all day!
But it’s pretty scary to put yourself our there with an accountability partner. It has to be a goal that you really really want to achieve.
Thanks for the great advice, and in motivating me to try it.
Katy,
It can definitely be scary the first few times, but once you start achieving those goals due to being accountable it gets easier and easier.
You might want to start by picking some smaller goals/actions that you want to achieve. I put my goals/actions up every Monday night on this site and comment on if I succeeded at them every Sunday night. Take a look at my goals and you will see that not all of them are huge undertakings. In fact I try to break my goals into smaller pieces (I wrote a post on that today).
If you really want to give it a try why don’t you post some goals in the comments section of my goals this upcoming Monday and join me in the process. Pick some smaller goals or actions that you really need to get done in the upcoming week.
Jeremie
[...] “How to” theme is so practical, with over 20 “How to” articles, from 7 Steps to Using Accountability for Goal Achievement (which I am going to try now that I’ve read how it’s done), to “How to [...]
If I achieve my goals, it inspires me to go for bigger ones or goals outside my usual comfort zone.
my problem is I create too many at one time and have had to disipline myself.
I agree you need to network with others, I too lied to my coach once and I felt guilty, so I now state goals I follow through on.
also a good tool I came across was Simpleology.com have you seen that, it maybe helpful to blog readers. It got me into a place where I was clear about what goals I was really after.
great post
Thanks for the post Robyn. As far as setting too many goals, you may want to check out my post on “How to make action setting sustainable” where I discuss how to keep your energy up so you can continue achieving your actions and goals over long periods of time.
I have been to simpleology.com but have not spent a great deal of time there. I will check it out further.
[...] 7 steps to using accountability for goal achievement [...]
[...] If you need help with being accountable for you goals check out this post on accountability. [...]