It’s one thing to set goals, most of us think we are quite good at that, but a completely different matter to actually achieve them. How many times did you move your most important to-dos from one list to another this week? How easy was it to stick to those all important wellbeing promises you made earlier in the year?

Studies show that when you share your goals with other people and become accountable to them, you are twice as likely to reach them. Sounds straightforward, but not many people do it.

Often the reason you are not ready for accountability is that you don’t always know what your most important goal is. (Here’s how to set goals if you don’t know what you want). Or it’s possible that your dream is so big that you feel embarrassed sharing it with others. What if you don’t reach it at all?

The key to achieving your goals is accountability.

Whether you know how you want your ‘bigger life’ to look, or you don’t have any clear goals at all, the best way to get yourself moving from thinking to acting is to become accountable to someone else. Share your big dream or share the fact that you don’t know what your next step is and ask someone to hold you accountable to doing something about it, then boom, you’re on your way faster than you think! 

Accountability gets you into action

Caroline had been thinking of joining a local women’s business club for a while. It was just an idea in her head until she shared it with other DrivenWoman members and announced what she was going to do. That simple act of committing to action and sharing it with a supportive group of women was enough to move her into action. 

Nevo had been thinking of running the first workshop as part of her plan of building a personal styling firm. Again, it was just an idea in her head until she shared it in the our online group with other ladies. Within hours she had booked her first venue and went on to run her first workshop with great success. (Here Nevo talks about her accountability experience.)

Go public or go home

When Sandra planned to take part in a public speaking event for women to practise their skills she wanted to make sure she wouldn’t chicken out last minute so she asked other members from her accountability group to join the event.

You are less likely to cancel your appointment or plan if you’ve shared it with an accountability partner. When nobody knows what you are thinking of doing it’s very easy to just not do it at all. This is especially attractive if you are trying to do something new and slightly scary or something that requires extra effort, such as getting up for a run early in the morning.

It’s human nature to try to keep your integrity and not come across as flaky or not trustworthy. We all like to keep our promises so why not make our goals public?

Accountability increases your feelings of worthiness

When you agree to let go of your pride and start sharing your ambitions with others you open yourself up to higher level of self awareness. It’s easy to go around in one’s head with new ideas and things you dream of but as soon as you announce them to the world, even if it’s just to one person, they become real.

By acknowledging your aspirations you give them more attention. That leads to valuing yourself more and suddenly you feel more worthy of accomplishing your dreams. When you share your idea with another person the worth of your idea doubles!

Accountability helps you not to give up

Jane, one of our members in London, recently published a book she had been dreaming of writing for a long time. Becoming accountable to the small steps that make up the long journey made it easier to stay on the path and not to give up.

“I can remember whispering my dream to a fellow DrivenWoman member in a meeting 4 years ago…and I have just self published my 1st novel! The accountability road works… All you have to do is stay on it!” she testifies.  

Accountability creates your own little circle of cheerleaders

When our members start sharing their journey and their goals with others they immediately form a deep connection with each other. Everyone is on the same journey! Everyone wants to do or build or achieve something, but is vulnerable enough to acknowledge they need support.

By asking someone to be your accountability partner means it works both ways. She’s suddenly accountable to you for what she wants to create or do. Soon you will have a magic circle of cheerleaders around you who’ll support you when going gets tough, and it always will.

The circle is there not just to make you stick to your 5 am bootcamp training session, they are there to offer help and be a sounding board when you need to air your ideas.

Accountability works for ‘non-goals’ too

We all suffer from indecision or procrastination at times and then it’s difficult to associate with actual concrete goals.

“I’m too tired to focus”
“I’m bogged down by the general chores of daily life”
“I can’t decide what I want so I am doing nothing”
“I don’t know where to start”
“I don’t believe in myself and am frightened of not being perfect”
“I have trouble planning how to achieve my goals”
“I’m stuck in a rut and don’t know how to move forwards”

We hear this all the time from ambitious women all around the world in our tribe, feeling stuck means not being able to move forward. Often, it’s not about achieving big goals, just about taking that next step. It sounds simple but when you are changing direction in life or want to start something new the best way of moving forwards fast is to hold yourself accountable to someone else.

DrivenWoman is a social platform connecting women who want to achieve their goals and dreams.  Thousands of women around the world have joined our program and are achieving their life goals supported by one another.  Join our FREE community the Doers Tribe.