When you bring another person into your dream achievement goal, you have a better chance at realizing your dream. Sharing your dream progress with others holds you accountable to the promises you make to yourself. Without accountability, you will procrastinate, change direction over and over, or simply decide your dream is just not worth the hassle.
Accountability is the gas that makes your dream car move forward.
Accountability is why I started the 8 Women Dream blog. Each week we must write about what we have learned or explored about living our dreams. Trust me, as each one of us sits down to write about our dream each week, we are forced to take a hard look at where we are with our big dreams.
Did we spend the week ignoring our dreams, or did we actively peruse a goal that moved us closer to the images we’ve placed on our dream vision boards? Are we making progress?
The weekly check-in blog posts are like a slap in the face — because we are accountable to someone other than ourselves. We are held accountable to each other — and accountable to you, our readers.
Many people start the new year with resolutions for the following year. As you move in to the new year, as a dreamer you probably set goals to work on your dream resolutions. You may even have a dream plan like, “I will lose 50 pounds by November.” You begin the year thinking about all the things you need to do to lose the weight: walk more, join a gym, cut out dessert, drink less alcohol, drink more water, etc. But all too often, you let more immediate needs (like needing to sleep in instead of getting up to walk) delay your dream progress. This continues for several months until the next thing you know, it’s November, and you still haven’t lost any weight.
The missing piece to dream success is being held accountable in some way to your resolutions.
Having a dream partner, or someone who will hold you accountable, can mean the difference between success and failure when it comes to your dream goals. Unless you’re consistently a highly motivated self-starter, your chances of sticking to a long-term dream plan without a way to hold yourself accountable are significantly less than they are with an accountability check-in partner.
Top 6 Benefits of Having A Dream Accountability Partner -
1. You have a way to measure progress.
Progress measurement is a crucial component of effective dream management, after all if you don’t measure how you are doing against your dream plan then the dream begins to die a slow death. All dreams will deviate from their dream plans, and goals can change as the dream progresses. Unless you are aware of what you are accomplishing within a certain time frame, then you will always be reacting to circumstances instead of controlling them.
2. You can’t ignore your dream.
When you share your dream plan with others, it becomes more real to you, which raises the bar. Sharing your dream with someone who will hold you accountable forces you to claim responsibility to the dream you want to pursue. Suddenly you are more focused and an active participant in your dream plan. There’s nothing more annoying than telling someone you are going to do something, then having to explain why you didn’t do it when they ask you about it later.
3. You have to pay attention to time management.
The human brain works more efficiently when it is focused. As Heather has written before on 8 Women Dream: multitasking kills productivity. If we want to shorten our work days then we should focus on just one thing until it is complete before moving on to the next task. Having someone hold you accountable forces you to focus on just one thing. If I say I am going to walk 25 miles this week and have to tell you about it next Sunday, then this week I am going to be hyper-focused on walking those miles, knowing that I am going to have to tell you about it later.
4. You’ll be motivated by a perspective outside of your own.
Sometimes it is hard to view our dreams objectively. When it comes to your dream progress, you may not see how much you’ve progressed over time. This is one reason I love the idea of blogging your dream with weekly updates. At any time you can go back through a years worth of posts and see how much you’ve changed. This is also why fitness coaches recommend you take those underwear photos holding a newspaper so you can objectively see how your body changes over time. Having a person remind you of how much you have completed can help keep you motivated to continue dreaming through the rough patches.
5. You force yourself to fully commit to your dream.
When you communicate your dream goal with other people it forces you, like nothing else, to commit to getting off your butt and doing something about your dream. If I say I am going to make improvements to this blog, and you are expecting it, then eventually I will stay up late one night and complete the changes. I may get away with letting myself down, but I hate letting others down.
6. You will be more likely to celebrate your successes.
Celebrating your dream progress by yourself isn’t as much fun as it would be to celebrate with other people. This is why you will see the women of 8 Women Dream show up in the comment section of the other dreamers. We want to help each other celebrate our accomplishments and the things we discover about ourselves along the way. When I see that Katie has traveled over her weekend, or Remy has taken new photographs, or Jayne has discovered something new about financial responsibility, I am thrilled for them. When I comment I am letting them know that I value their dream and I am here to support them.
How do you find an accountability partner? This special person can be someone from your family who you trust; a best friend or co-worker who has your best interests at heart, and will encourage you. You might even consider checking in with a life coach, or joining a group with people who are trying to achieve the same dream as you. But you need to find an accountability partner who will resonate with you and your dream. This person needs to allow you (and encourage you) to grow and change as your dream progresses.
You must be able to be honest with this person about your dream progress and where you are trying to end up within a certain time commitment (I want to travel to Italy by 2014.). This person needs to be able to frame their encouragement in a way that keeps you motivated, while still holding you accountable to your commitments when you waiver.
You also must be willing to check in with this person on a regular basis. You should come away from your conversations inspired to achieve maximum results the following week. The simple knowledge that you are expected to report your dream progress each week and discuss your procrastination excuses is enough to motivate anyone.
Most big dreams are not achieved because we are not held accountable to anyone to achieve them. Having a dream accountability partner may be the only thing keeping you from achieving your greatest dream.
Catherine
Catherine’s dream is to make 8 Women Dream the premier online publication for women looking to change their lives. She is a published author, known for her humorous speeches on finding your dream life and blogging for fun and profit. Catherine also writes about her life as a mom at the blog, A Week in the Life of A Redhead and several online marketing publications. She would also like to be invited to speak at TED about her observations on people chasing their big dreams. Catherine posts on Sunday evenings and fills in when needed. Join me on Google+ rapieress@aol.com
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