Show Notes:

Hello and welcome back! I’m excited to have you on our 40th episode of the show. It’s such a fantastic accomplishment and I can’t wait for the next 40!

Today we are going to talk about something which is super important for your success: accountability. 

Over the summer, I launched a membership site. In the process of that, I joined an accountability group with two other female entrepreneurs who also intended to launch their own subscription services. And the function of our weekly meetings is to keep each other accountable. But here’s what quickly transpired. The meetings became an opportunity to share what we were working on as well as why we weren’t working on certain aspects. 

After a while, it dawned on me that we aren’t really holding each other accountable, so I decided it was time for a revamp. What I’m going to share with you today is the exact method you can use to increase your own accountability whether you’re working alone or with someone else. 

I’d love to start with the word accountability. According to google, it means “The fact or condition of being accountable.” It also means responsibility. So when I dug further into what being accountable was, it said, “required or expected to justify actions or decisions.” I’d like to add to that definition. I believe it’s not just about justifying your actions, it’s about measuring progress. According to Pearson’s Law, when performance is measured, it improves. Now we have something. 

The reason this is important is, it’s not enough to reflect on the actions you’ve taken. You have to ensure that the actions you take are aligned with the results you want to create. 

This takes time initially to set up, but it can be the biggest factor in your growth and save you a bunch of time, money, and energy you might otherwise allocate and not have much to show for. 

Here are the 5 factors to consider when setting up your plan:

1. You want to identify your mission. This essentially begs the question, “What is your purpose?” When it comes to your business, why do you exist? When it comes to your career, why did you dedicate yourself to this profession? If it’s a personal matter like weight loss, you still need to know your “why.”
2. The next step is to set a goal. What do you need to accomplish to achieve your mission? This can be a specific amount of money you want to make by the end of the year. It can be attaining a new certification or the number of pounds you want to weigh by the end of your diet. 
3. Now that you have your goal, you need an objective. What will help you achieve your goal? If you have a financial goal, it might mean you need 10 new patients a month or getting a promotion at your job. What is it for you?
4. By now you should have more clarity about what you’re going after and why you’re going after it. But what key results will help you achieve your objective? If you need an extra 10 patients a month, how will you make that happen? Do you need to advertise? If so, what kind of ads will you do and where? Get even clearer as we go down the funnel of what to focus your mind and efforts on. 
5. And finally, we are at the more granular level – your action steps. What do you have to do this week in order to move the needle on your key results? Keep in mind, there may be some actions you take on a regular basis. That’s not your weekly action steps. Those are your regular actions and you should jot those down. But what will make this week significant? If you need to advertise as mentioned earlier, will you be creating a Facebook ad or hiring someone to do it for you? Will you be chatting with patients that come in and asking them for referrals? Will you create flyers and leave them in the waiting room? What if your goal is weight loss? Will you throw out all the sugary snacks from your cupboard to eliminate temptation? Will you focus on drinking more water throughout the day? If so, how much and how will you track it? These are the questions you need to answer and then put the action steps into your calendar so you know exactly which day you do what on. This helps you create a specific plan that you can easily follow. 

As I mentioned, this may take some time to put together, but once you have your form filled out, you can just look directly at your to-dos for this week and focus on those. Then you’ll need to have an appointment with yourself to check back in and see if you did everything you set out to do and if not, what got in the way. Then set your action items for the coming week. 

Assuming you’re going to do this alone, one way that you can keep yourself accountable is use an app that keeps your streak. Let me share an example with you. 

My membership site is focused on reprogramming your subconscious. To that end, I create for my group a recording which they listen to for 15 minutes a day. One of my members came to a coaching session and said the reason she continues to listen to the recording daily is because she utilizes an app that keeps her streak and she doesn’t want to break it because once you miss a day, you lose all the points you’ve accumulated and have to start back at zero. If that’s something that motivates you, find an app for this purpose. 

Another way people hold themselves accountable when they are working solo is they publicly announce their goals. Research has shown that this boosts your chance of completing your goals by 65%. 

Most people, though, need more accountability than they can give themselves. That’s where having an accountability partner can be helpful. In fact, I just read that this increases your chance of success to 95%. Not sure how truly accurate this is, but it makes sense that regardless of the number, your chances of sticking with your goals are greater when someone’s checking in on you. 

An accountability partner can be someone who is working on a goal themselves, so it’s an opportunity to check in on each other. You might join an accountability group where there is more than one person holding you accountable. Or it can be working with a coach who not only helps you figure out what your next best step is, but holds you accountable to taking that action. And when you show up the following week to the call, if you haven’t followed through, that’s where the definition of accountability, the one that says you need to justify your actions, comes into play. That’s where I, as a coach, would ask, “What got in the way?” and help problem-solve to overcome any obstacles. 

I’ve worked both approaches when it comes to accountability. Here’s what I can tell you. Working with a coach one-on-one is great, but only if:

1. You take specific notes of the expectations set in the session so you know what to focus on in the coming week and take action on them.
2. If you have a coach that also takes notes and reviews those notes at the start of your session to check in on your progress.

Working in a group or with a partner is similar. It’s not enough to share what you’ve done or hadn’t done since the last meeting. You need to set goals with a specific time frame, identify the actions you need to take in order to accomplish those goals, and take action that will move the needle for you. When you report back to your partner or group, it should be not about what you did, but what results you accomplished.

If accountability feels negative, what are you making it mean? Does it feel like something you have to do? Remember, you never have to do anything. You’ve put yourself in this accountability situation because it is making it easier for you to take action and achieve the goal that you set out for yourself. Change your perception of the word and you will fare much better. 

When it comes to goal setting, there is often resistance that comes up. This is where you need to ask yourself the hard questions, especially if you’re not being coached through this. What do you really want? Why do you want it? If you’re not following through, why aren’t you? There’s always a reason. Try to dig deep so you’re not coming up with excuses like, “I was too busy.” That is just a sign that you didn’t prioritize your goal. So why aren’t you prioritizing it? What are you afraid of? People are often afraid of change. What do you fear will happen when you accomplish your goal? These are your limiting beliefs and then the work is to reprogram your mind.

And if that’s you, I invite you to check out The Priming Lab where we help you reprogram your beliefs and where you’ll not only have accountability, but you’ll have the support of like-minded individuals and where I can coach you through any barriers. To find out more, go to www.ThePrimingLab.com

Finally, I want to leave you with this mindset tip. If you have one week where you didn’t do what you set out to do or you made a mistake, take responsibility and learn from it. Don’t shame yourself. Instead, just reflect on what you want to do the next time around. 

And speaking of the next time around, I’ll be back next week to share more tips on how you WIMBAs can be even more badass. Talk to you soon.