Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Accountability, what is it good for?

How do you hold yourself accountable?

I had a coffee this morning with Tony Roy, a business coach I met through BNI. I wanted to know more about what he does, and if it might be something beneficial for my business. I guess that sounds a little silly, I'm pretty sure a coach would always be beneficial for someone's business, so I knew he could only help me and my business. I guess the question I really wanted answered was, could he help me with the bit I know I have trouble with: holding myself accountable.

I've talked about this a bit when blogging about my business website. I've joked that I suffer from the cobbler's children syndrome, I help clients get their online presence in order and I barely have one.

This doesn't make me unique, but a weakness is a weakness no matter if I'm part of the majority or the minority. So, how do I fix this? I almost never hold myself accountable for tasks I need to do to build my business.



But hold on here Candice, I say to myself! It's day 10 of my blogging challenge and I haven't missed a day. Even though, like tonight, I'm writing up my post at the bitter end of the day. The part of the day where I want to be cuddling in bed reading a book, or relaxing on the couch watching a movie.

Nobody is really following my daily posts here. I've hardly told anyone about it and I'm not sharing the blogs through social media really. The only person who is really paying attention to whether or not I post every day is me.

So why am I holding myself accountable for writing these?

And why did I take part in all of those other 30 day challenges I've done. Besides this and the first blogging challenge, I've also done a squat challenge, a plank challenge, a jump rope challenge. And I've finished every one.

I did the squat challenge first. It was intense. I had to do so many squats a day that I could often be found doing them on the beach, in the shower, at restaurants. My aunt, who was with me at the cottage during part of the challenge, asked me why I kept doing them, who was going to know if I didn't. I very quickly answered that I would know if I hadn't done them. I would know that I had cheated.

What is it about a 30 day challenge that fills me with desire and willpower to keep going?

I don't know. I will think about this for a while. But the first idea that comes to mind is that it is a finite amount of time and a specific amount of tasks. One blog post every day for 30 days. Fifty jumps with the skipping rope on day one and increasing incrementally to finish with 800 jumps on day 30.

Other goals, like create a business website, are so open ended. No end date, no specific starting point. No daily tasks every day. And honestly, so not glamorous! Saying I blogged every day for 30 days is a big deal. I feel proud of it, people are impressed by it. Saying I created a business website is just kind of business as usual. There is no reward. Or seemingly no reward.

Maybe I need to gamify every task in my life.

So, how do you hold yourself accountable?

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