Accountability Partners

January 27th:  I have a group of friends with a desire to be held accountable for their 2017 goals, a desire to be here on this day in 2018 and say “I made this happen for myself”.

Goals are big when you’re young — get an education, find a job that is rewarding and allows you to support yourself, find a partner to share your life with, buy a home, have children, save money for retirement, have a vacation now and again.  Maintaining the status quo takes over once these goals are checked off the list and it seems there are never new goals to take their place.  I love trying new things, but I never define goals around new things.  When the novelty wears off the new thing just falls by the wayside.  Mind you, this is the kind of person I am and will always be, but still, there has to be some kind of middle ground between trying new things and becoming skilled at new things.

There are many crossroads in life and I’m standing at one right now.  I’m at the intersection of continuing to maintain the status quo and do something different with my life.  The thing is, I can’t do either without goals.  Goals are required to maintain the status quo; to maintain status quo I need to keep myself relevant and work harder at achieving a work/life balance.  Goals are required to do something different with my life.  I could drift aimlessly trying to figure out what I want to do or I could define goals that add focus and framework to my exploration and then later, manifest an interest into reality.

When the subject of accountability came up I raised my hand to participate.  I diligently completed the preparation assignment which was to define several goals and measurable action items for which I wanted to be held accountable over the next 30 days.  That exercise alone brought clarity and motivation to my year.

So today I am grateful for these friends and this project.  Our first meeting was today and it was energizing.  I know I will need the support of this group to work through the desire to quit this blog when the novelty of writing daily wears off.  I am also grateful for the opportunity to get to know each of these women better for as it turns out, you can learn a lot about a person from what they aspire to accomplish.