Accountability and You…
For many people the hardest part of starting a small business is self motivation. When we hold jobs for other companies we have goals that are set by the organization and managers or leaders who make sure we are reaching them. As soon as we go off on our own it’s a harsh realization that we have to be that person. We are the creator, the manager, the operations guru, tech support… all of it. With outside influences such as goals set by a company it’s easy to stay on track because we don’t want to disappoint those around us. If we continuously under perform we run the risk of getting written up or worse, fired. So the question remains how do we keep that same form of accountability when we work for ourselves?
Accountability Partners
Using an accountability partner can be extremely beneficial. The idea works on the same concept of regularly goal setting and performance. The difference is you are responsible for setting your own goal and sharing it with a partner. This goal can be anything you want. For us writers it may be a word count goal or a goal around editing, for readers it may be something as simple as “This week I’m going to read something from my TBR rather then buy a new book.” These small goals help you work towards one overall goal, such as finishing a manuscript. But the most important part is the regular check ins with that accountability partner.
Weekly Check Ins
For a while a group of writer friends and I got together for a weekly call to check in on our book progress. It was helpful but when we started our weekly live events for Crazy Writer Chicks it became too much in one week. This last Monday we launched a weekly accountability post. Every Monday members of the Crazy Writer Chicks can check in on each other by posting what their weekly goal is and how they handled the last week’s goal. I posted on Monday that I was going to revise at least five chapters of my next book Unexpected. By Friday I did it and I couldn’t wait to post that I was done and adding a new goal for myself.
For me it was very motivating. I put that goal out into the world and I needed to accomplish it. So tell me, have you ever worked with an accountability partner? If not and it’s something you want to try then join our Facebook group, The Crazy Writer Chicks and you can do it with us! Hopefully we will all see the successes we are hoping for with this new process.
Happy Reading.
-Nikki Rome