My girlfriends and I do a “healthy hustle” to maximize our steps. It’s a race to see who can get the most steps each week. Spoiler alert: I’m a writer. It’s never me. We battle it out, cheering each other on as we go. Together, we are crushing our fitness and nutrition goals. If you want to achieve your goals, establish an accountability partnership right away– create a group that will keep you focused, committed and provide the necessary encouragement to keep making progress. Your accountability group can be a single partner– a close friend, a colleague, or someone who has a similar goal, or it can be a group composed of all of these.
An accountability partner is not merely someone to whom you announce the goal. Sure, that helps. However, The Association for Talent Development research shows that your odds of success with an accountability partner are 95% compared to those who simply announce their goal at 65%.
The FACES of Accountability
The great folks at ATD have come up with an accountability model, FACES, to help you develop an effective partnership and get the results you desire. It works for my girlfriend group, “The Keto Chicas,” and it can work for you, too.
Focus
We make it a priority to touch base daily, usually multiple times a day. We use wellness apps, smart watches, and social technology to report in on gym time, food choices, and personal challenges. Using video-based technology allows us to connect in a more meaningful way to hold each other accountable. Focus means to keep the goal in view.
Apprenticeship
The goal of the group is to get and stay healthy through nutrition and exercise. Some of us are more locked into our diets, while others are more disciplined at getting to the gym. We each leverage our individual strength to lift the entire group by sending video messages from the gym or sending snap shots of “What’s for dinner?” We help each other establish micro-goals to get to the prize. Each one, teach one.
Challenge
We all have specific, but different, goals to achieve. We’re not competing with each other. We’re competing together. The group is working together to achieve individual goals. We share our individual goals and hold each other accountable to achieve what we desire. It takes honesty and commitment to challenge each other to be the best versions of ourselves.
Education
Everybody shares articles, posts, studies, videos, etc. on our lifestyle diet, exercise regimens and general healthy living. Some have Pintrest boards while others share information from Facebook groups. We continue to learn and grow together to achieve our goals.
Safety
Your accountability group has to be free of judgment, a safe place to fail. While prioritizing and holding one another accountable you must also extend grace to those when they miss the mark. We gently encourage each other to remember that this is a lifestyle and one fail with french fries or sparkling rose cannot destroy your progress– but We’ll also remind you that you have to start again tomorrow.