Whenever we embark on a mission or are working towards a goal, we typically default to holding ourselves to account. Unfortunately, we usually do a pretty crummy job at it.
Sometimes we tell people about our mission, but most of the time this is a passive gesture that doesn’t really increase our accountability – it’s more an external reference point to track progress.
If you really want to remain focused on achieving a goal, the key is to go one step further and determine who is responsible to keep you accountable. What would it mean to have someone that embodies the responsibility to keep you on track? What if they shared in the ownership of your results as well? What could that look like?
This is common practice in the workplace, where typically a team leader is responsible to keep the team members accountable. So why can’t we apply this to our personal life as well?
Now, you don’t need to nominate someone to hold you accountable every time you set a goal. This is simply a tool you can use that may help you make sustainable change, particularly if it’s really important to you.