Yesterday I wrote about specific goal setting strategies you can use to meet those New Year’s resolutions.  Today, I want to talk about using accountability to achieve your goals.

What exactly is Accountability?

Accountability is defined as the willingness to take responsibility for one’s actions or results.

The key here is YOU. You take responsibility for meeting your goals or not.  You take responsibility for taking the steps necessary to achieve your goals.

But sometimes we all need help.

That’s where an Accountability Partner comes in.

The concept of Accountability Partners was first introduced to me by Dennis Karganilla during the first 90 Day Challenge Social Media training course offered by MLM Goldmine.  DK called it a Running Buddy, but the name doesn’t matter.  The concept is the same.

Basically, an Accountability Partner is someone who keeps you on track towards achieving your goals. He or she is the person who applauds your successes, commiserates with your failures, and kicks you in the butt when you aren’t doing anything.

My personal running buddy is Curt Frieden, AKA The Mac Marketer.  I met Curt during the 90 Day Challenge, and my wife Rosemary and I have teamed with Curt as Accountability Partners for over a year.

How do we act as each others Accountability Partners? We tried several ways, including phone calls and daily emails, but it became to labor intensive and was destined to fail.

So we turned to Google Documents. We each opened up a Google Doc and began posting daily entries documenting what we did that day that moved us closer to our goals.  We then allowed each other access (called “sharing”) to our respective Google Documents and, in doing so, we were able to comment on the progress being made.

It is a great motivational tool.  Rosemary and I know that if we don’t keep working our business and moving towards our ultimate goals, we will be getting emails and phone calls from Curt wanting to know what the hell is going on.  And vice versa, of course.

Accountability partners or running buddies are not new concepts. People use them in all walks of life, sometimes unknowingly.  Think of long distance runners.  Many of them routinely run with a partner to push them to new heights.  Or the person trying to lose weight, doing a diet program with someone else to keep them accountable.

Another example, perhaps more extreme, is the concept of a diving buddy — two people who dive together to ensure each other’s safety.  Here, not having a buddy can mean life or death.

One thing is a virtual certainty.  If you lack  accountability in your life, you will almost certainly fail to achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

Some people think they can be accountable to themselves.  In my experience, I can count on one hand the number of people who can actually achieve their goals without support or accountability to others.

Why risk it?

Get an Accountability Partner, work out a system of accountability that works best for both of you, and then stick to it.

It’s the very best strategy I know to achieve both short-term and long-term goals.

To your success!

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