#31DayReset Day 11: Find an Accountability Partner

This post is Day 11 of the 31 Days to Reset Your Life Challenge for 2011. Learn more and sign up for the program here.

Yesterday, you took inspired action by doing one thing to get to closer to your ideal life. Today, you’re going to take that concept a step further and build in some accountability for your long-term, sustained progress. Today, you’re going to find an accountability partner.

What is an accountability partner?

• a friend, family member, co-worker, mentor, coach or someone else you can trust to help you keep a commitment
• someone on the same path as you or simply willing to help you in your specific journey
• someone who can help you stay on track toward reaching your goals
• someone who stands firm and won’t let you get away with making excuses or procrastinating
• someone who will ask you all those difficult questions we tend to avoid

How to find an accountability partner:

• Ask a trusted friend, family member, co-worker, or mentor to help you. Make an ongoing weekly or monthly appointment to share a “progress report” by phone or in person.
• Hire a coach. The benefit of a coach is that she will be objective in helping you reach your goal, whereas sometimes our loved ones can have ulterior motives in the advice they give. It’s not on purpose or in any kind of malicious way, it’s just that they typically want what they think is “best” for you.
• Seek out online communities where there are people who have the same interests and goals as you. You want to surround yourself with other people who are making positive changes in their lives, because they will be more likely to want to help you do the same thing. Personal growth is contagious! A great online community for black women entrepreneurs is Black Business Women Online, which is run by the fabulous LaShanda Henry aka Sistasense.