7 Powerful Reasons To Have An Accountability Buddy

We all have goals that we want to achieve. Some are simple and easily achieved, while others are big, hairy audacious goals that challenge us and can even scare the heck out of us initially.

While motivation might get you started, when it comes to achieving your goals or sustaining the results from those goals, you may need to rely on more than just your willpower.

Having an accountability buddy is a great way to help you stay on track especially when your motivation and willpower fades.

In a study regarding goal achievement by Dr Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University in California, results showed that people who wrote down their goals, shared this information with a friend and sent them weekly updates were on average 33% more successful in accomplishing their stated goals than those who merely formulated them.

So what is an Accountability Buddy and how do you find one?

An accountability buddy is a business peer who you meet with weekly either in person or via phone or video conference, that will hold you to your commitments and offer guidance, feedback and support and in return you do the same for them.

You don’t need to be in the same industry, you do want to find someone who is also empowered to achieve their goals. Look for someone who can be straight-forward and honest with you, someone who will hold you accountable, not someone who will rescue, fix or save you (hint…that’s your job, not theirs).

Ensure you will both commit to your accountability call each week and set a date and time (preferably the same date and time each week) for your calls.

Being a buddy also means that you’ll be returning the favour and make sure you’re willing to provide constructive feedback even when it’s uncomfortable to share.

I usually like to meet once a week with my Accountability Buddy – usually for 30 minutes first thing Monday morning before the day gets started.

How To Structure Your Accountability Call:

Spend 5 minutes each to share your wins and successes from the past week and review any areas where you struggled

Spend 10 minutes each to detail your action plan for the week ahead to achieve your goals and to brainstorm any issues.

Key Tips:

It’s important that you listen carefully to your buddy when they are sharing, ask clarification questions where necessary, be supportive and only give advice when it is requested.

Finally accountability buddies need to hold each other to consequences if commitments go uncompleted. Whether you set a financial consequence (ie: you owe me $200 if you don’t complete your goal) or simply having to admit that you were unable to complete. Consequences keep you motivated and engaged.

A few years ago my previous accountability buddy Adam Wallace and I set each other a challenge and if we did not complete the challenge the consequence was that we would have a bucket of icy water poured over us in front of our friends.

Sadly, neither of us quite achieved the challenge so we both received an icy encounter!

You can watch the video here.

To ensure you keep each other accountable, I recommend setting up a Google doc, OneNote, or even a secret Facebook Group for you and your accountability buddy to write down what actions you want to be held accountable for each week and also to share your successes throughout the week.

So to sum up here are 7 powerful reasons to get yourself an accountability buddy for 2019!

1. Keeps you motivated – it can be hard to stay motivated and keep momentum going on your own, having an accountability buddy encouraging you will help keep you moving forward.
   
   
2. A great sounding board – having someone to bounce ideas, problems and challenges and brings new perspectives, ideas and solutions is invaluable.
   
   
3. Highlights your blind spots – a good accountability buddy will reflect things back to you that you may not be able to see yourself. We are often not aware of how we ourselves or other things are impacting our ability to achieve our goals.
   
   
4. They will be your biggest cheerleader – there are days when your motivation and mental strength will be tested, it’s these days that your accountability buddy will be your biggest cheerleader and the one who will say “YES YOU CAN”, they will remind you of what you have accomplished and help keep your goals in sight.
   
   
5. They will make sure your goal remains a priority – your accountability buddy wants to see you succeed, they will hold you to your chosen consequence (gently and firmly).
   
   
6. They will celebrate every milestone on your journey no matter how small – its so easy to focus on everything that is ahead of us and forget how much we have achieved to date. It’s important to have someone who will recognise and celebrate the big and importantly the small wins that help us arrive at the bigger goals.
   
   
7. You don’t have to go it alone – one of the best reasons to have an accountability buddy is the feeling you won’t be on this journey alone. There will be someone in your corner rooting for you, to dispel your fears and to cheer you onwards.

Remember as you search for your accountability buddy, look for someone who will challenge, empower and cheer you on.

Do you have an accountability buddy? How have they helped you and are there any tips you would add to this list?