The Importance of Accountability

Your habits lead to your goals, and both are amazing ways to help you become who you want to become. Accomplishing a goal can feel incredible. But often, the pathway to accomplishment can be tough. You hit roadblocks and unforeseen obstacles, and it can be harder to keep going.

Read more about how to create habits so you can nail your goals here.

One way to nail a habit consistently is through accountability, whether that’s being accountable to yourself, to someone else, or both.

What does accountability mean? Put simply, it means being responsible for your actions or lack of actions. True accountability means honestly accepting how you’re doing, ideally without making any excuses or rationalizations when you’re struggling to keep moving forward on something you want to accomplish. When you aren’t real about any lack of progress or issues you’re facing, it’s difficult to continue to make continual progress.

How can accountability help you achieve your goals and create solid habits? Check out these reasons why accountability of some kind should be a part of your overall plan to achieve a goal:

• Helps keep distractions away. When you have to be accountable, you’ll be better able to focus on completing your habits. This is especially true when you’re accountable to someone else as you don’t want to have to tell them you messed up or didn’t do what you’d committed to do.
• Helps you measure your progress and notice successes. It can be so easy to dwell on the negatives and all the times when we mess up, but when we’re accountable, we’re more apt to notice both successes, which can help motivate us to keep moving forward, and any stumbling blocks, which allows to learn from them and then tweak or change anything that is stalling our progress.
• Helps to keep you focused on your goal. When you have to report to someone, even yourself, about how you’re doing, you’re more likely to keep doing those habits consistently since you’ll be reporting your progress.
• Gives you a support system to help you work through roadblocks, share ideas, and celebrate successes.

Let’s dive into the two different types of accountability: Self-accountability and accountability to someone else.

Self-Accountability

You can be your biggest cheerleader, and you can also be your biggest critic. When you’re your own accountability partner, it’s important to keep things in their proper perspective, give yourself grace when needed, and push yourself to overcome rationalizations you might use with yourself for not consistently doing those habits. Here are some tips for being successfully self-accountable:

• Write down your goals, and you’ll be 20% more likely to achieve them! After all, as Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” If you really want to accomplish something, write it down.
• Make a plan. As Benjamin Franklin so wisely said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” No plan usually leads to no or very little success. And remember that your plan is not set in stone. You can tweak it and change it as needed.
• Put reminders in your calendar to do your habits, even when you’re 99.9% sure you won’t forget. Because you will.
• Use sticky notes. Sticky notes are a great invention and can be used to keep you accountable. Post reminders and motivational quotes around your home and workspace.
• Use a habit tracking sheet. I love checking things off my sheet every day, and all those check marks are a great motivation to keep going because I don’t want to break my streak! My favorite habit tracker is from James Clear (author of Atomic Habits), and you can download it for free here.
• Set reminders in your phone. If you get busy during the day, setting reminders can be a huge help to keep you on track with your habits.

Accountability to Someone Else

A buddy can be an important accountability tool, and this relationship can work both ways too: They hold you accountable and you hold them accountable. Here are some ideas for working with an accountability buddy:

• Choose wisely. Your buddy should be supportive, a cheerleader, honest when needed, someone who won’t let you off the hook, willing to offer ideas when you’re struggling, and so on. They won’t let you get away with rationalizations, but they’ll also be your #1 fan.
• Check-in often. Studies have shown that simply checking in regularly with someone else increases your chance of  success by 40%! That’s huge!
• Talk about your struggles. Your buddy can be a great sounding board and a crucial resource for ideas and things you might not even be thinking about that can help you overcome any struggles. They can help you see things through different perspectives and think outside your usual box.
• Be the type of buddy you need. This is not a one-sided relationship, and you’ll get back what you put into this accountability partnership.

An Accountability Buddy Story

Back in May, I was texting with my friend, Danelle, and we were talking about some goals we wanted to accomplish but we were struggling a bit to make any progress on those goals. We decided to be accountability buddies for each other! I was going to work on my GGS Women’s Coaching Specialist Certification, and she was going to work on working out more regularly. We made a pact to check in with each other every time we’d accomplished our habit. My habit was to work on my certification 1 hour, 3 days a week. Her habit was to walk/run 2 miles a day, 4 days a week. These habits would get us to our goals!

How did it go?

I finished my certification earlier than planned, and then I started working on the next thing I wanted to accomplish. If I hadn’t committed to working on this habit with Danelle as my accountability buddy, that certification would probably still be unfinished.

For Danelle, her workouts became much more regular, which really helped her mindset, helped her feel better about herself, and helped get her closer to her goal.

For both of us, when things weren’t going perfectly (because what really ever goes perfectly?), we’d support each other, offer ideas and suggestions, and give each other some grace.

I’m so grateful for Danelle and how she helped me accomplish that goal. It didn’t take her any time except for replying to the texts I’d send, and it took me very little time to help her too. It’s been an awesome relationship for both of us, and we’re continuing to work on our goals together.

Whether you’re accountable to yourself, to a buddy, or both, simply being accountable to someone can make a big difference in how consistent you are with your habits and with ultimately accomplishing your goals.

Who’s your accountability buddy? If you need one, let’s chat.