#12 - Accountability Systems
So now you’ve set the goal, how to make sure that you follow through on it? Setting up an accountability system is the last step in effective goal setting. Achieving goals is important because the more success you experience, the more easily you will reach goals in the future.
Daily Goals
The first thing you need to do to stay on track is to write down your goals every day. Use a planner or little notebook, date the pages, and every day write out your goals. Each morning, remind yourself of what’s important to you by writing them down, then each evening, go back and re-write the goals but now, if you did you best to achieve your goal, in past tense. For example, in the morning write “win state,” in the evening write “won state” if you are happy with the effort you exerted toward reaching that goal.
To do, To Stop
Sometimes it’s more effective to frame things negatively in our mind. Instead of having all the items to complete on our To Do List, have a “To Don’t List.” Include things like, “don’t watch TV before 3pm,” “don’t snap at my siblings/parents/roommates,” “don’t overeat,” “don’t cut a single second out of my workout,” “don’t look at my phone during class,” you get the idea. At the end of the day, check off all the things you didn’t do—hopefully you accomplished the things that would’ve been on your To Do List and didn’t just spend the entire day doing absolutely nothing. I encourage you to experiment with a To Don’t List to see how it works for you.
Grade Yourself – but have the answers before the test!
Another great way to hold yourself accountable is to use a grading scale (A-F, 1-5, or 1-10). At the end of the day look at your goals and grade yourself on your efforts. Make sure to use positively framed questions. This method is also great when paired with accountability partners.
Accountability partners
Having a partner is a great way to ensure that you stay on track with your goals. It can be as simple as simply telling people about your goal or as strict as having a friend call or text you every day to check on your progress. It’s extremely easy to rationalize to ourselves about why it’s okay to cheat on our goals today but it’s far more difficult to rationalize to a third party who will see right through the “crazy talk.” Today I challenge you to tell people about your goals. Tell a friend or your family or your Facebook friends about your goal—ask them to hold you accountable to reaching your goal.
Money
Sometimes people will set up rewards for themselves—if I reach my goal, I will buy a new x. The danger of extrinsic motivation like this is that you come to depend on the reward itself and eventually it loses its value. Interestingly people are far more motivated by the fear of losing something than the prospect of gaining a reward. To harness this phenomenon, give money to an accountability partner and if you don’t reach your goal have them donate it to something. To make it even more effective, have them donate it to a cause you dislike if you fail to reach your goal. It is astonishing the lengths people will go to in order to prevent a cause they hate from benefiting.
One of the best ways to help yourself follow through is to tell people about your goals. No one likes to fall short—especially when other people know. So, post to Instagram or Facebook what your goals are and you’ll stick to them better. Be sure to use #advancingdaily so that you can check out what other athletes’ goals are!
