Accountability is one of the most powerful tools for change, and smart independent women often overlook it when working to create new habits or take on new challenges in their own lives. Creating accountability doesn’t have to be an unpleasant chore.
Every summer my family spends one perfect week on my favorite island in the Pacific Northwest. The same families return every year, and over the time we’ve been doing this, some very special friendships have formed. Each year we marvel at the changes in our children and catch up on the events of the last 12 months. It never ceases to amaze me how much can—and does—happen in a year.
One rainy summer, when the lake was not so appealing, my friend Margo and I started one of my favorite traditions. We’re both business owners and life coaches with missions we feel strongly about. That rainy day, we sat down and committed to goals for ourselves and our businesses for the next year.
Each year since, we’ve come together to share our wins, evaluate where we got stuck, and set our goals for the coming twelve months. Committing our plans to paper and to each other makes them real in an important way and, we find that it actually creates some powerful momentum. There is always something that I push myself to do, “because I told Margo I would.” The results of this one short sit-down are pretty powerful. Each year as we review how far we’ve come, we never fail to be surprised about something that we hadn’t quite realized we’d accomplished in just 12 short months.
Who know what you want to accomplish? Do you have an accountability partner? I’d love it if you’d leave a comment and share how accountability works for you.
Take good care,
Melissa
PS: That’s me and Margo just before we set our goals for the next 12 months.
