The Value of Accountability for Achieving Your Goals

by Mandi on December 29, 2010

source: Meg & Rahul

My monthly column is up at Simple Mom, and I’m talking about the role that being accountable to others plays in achieving your goals:

It’s that time of year, when most of us are reviewing the past year and anticipating what’s to come — full of goals and resolutions and hopes and dreams for the new year.

When I was in high school, I was involved in the youth group at our church, and one of the buzz phrases that was thrown around a lot was “accountability partner.” For everything from spiritual growth and purity to healthy eating and studying, the key to any change was having an accountability partner.

Looking back, that idea might have been a bit overplayed, but there are some very real benefits in choosing to be accountable to another person when setting and working toward a goal.

Benefits of Accountability

1. A Little Friendly Competition

If your “accountability partner” has set the same goal as you, a little bit of friendly competition can go a long way. Last year, some friends of ours both decided they wanted to lose weight. They created their own Biggest Loser competition, and the one who lost the highest percentage of weight at the end of 8 weeks was declared the winner. Knowing they were competing for a prize (even just the prize of being able to say “I won!”) helped them both stay on track and achieve their individual goals.

Read more at Simple Mom…

http://marcijo.blogspot.com/ Marci @ Rancho Relaxo

Thank you, that’s a great one I didn’t know about.
Juliana

I did not know either!
Lacy

I agree, that’s great! Thanks for sharing!
http://jugglingmotherhood.com/ Meeks

I feel like I was just let in on a BIG secret! Thanks! Can’t wait to pass this on to others!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2LZQ533B7X3PDWOXHFBVJIGICE jimmiehomeschoolmom

Okay, I feel like a dork. I need a diagram. WHERE is middle click? My mouse had a left and a right with a wheel in the middle. There’s no middle button. Is my mouse defective?
- http://twitter.com/SabrinaMix sabrinamix
  
  You can click with the wheel.
- http://twitter.com/SabrinaMix sabrinamix
  
  You can click with the wheel.
Kristy

This is awesome!! Thank you!!!!
Jreidstraub

My middle click is a wheel that scrolls automatically up or down. I must be missing something!
- Anonymous
  
  Have you tried pushing down on the wheel? That’s what mine is as well!
Mamacowx6

Fantastic tip, thanks for sharing!
http://ourniftynotebook.blogspot.com/ Jenny

Bummer, this doesn’t work on my mouse. Cool idea though!
http://jimmiescollage.com Jimmie

OH! The wheel can click too! I had no idea. Thanks for the clarification!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_23S2ZCF6GWNCVUPZC5LBFIH7CA Lori D

If you don’t have a middle click and use IE8 you can hold down CTRL and click a link to open it in a new tab.

Thanks for sharing this! I didn’t know! It works for me so I’ll be using middle click all the time now!
- Anonymous
  
  Ooh, this works in Firefox too — this will
  help a ton on my laptop!
Caroline

I always keep the cards we get, bundled by year, in my scrapbooking cupboard. Then, when I get to them, they get cut and applied to a page, and kept. A stack of cards and photos and letters becomes a two page spread reminding us of who wrote and remembered us at Christmas. The cuttings that don’t make it get recycled in the blue bin.

We get so many less cards now than we used to, and this year, we have not gotten one, when normally we have several. Everyone I talk to isn’t so much worried about the waste of sending out paper cards, but the time involved, when a Facebook or email update is faster. We lament the passing of a personal touch at the Holidays, but all agree its hard to keep up with, and more expensive every year.
http://twitter.com/txblond Tiffany @ NOH

I love the idea about remembering the givers. This is a great list! Thanks for sharing.
Susan

When I was little my mom would punch wholes in cards around the boarders and then let me sew with yarn around the holes – it was definitely a fun project on a cold winter day.
Gypsy Amykate

We have always used the card fronts for gift tags on our gifts the following Christmas.
Like the last commenter, we get fewer and fewer cards but many photo cards. My dear friend shared a wonderful idea to save the photo cards on which families spend much time and money {sometimes blood and tears, too.}The last 3 years, we have placed the photos in a small, portable album. We travel all the time, but we can easily take the album with us and my kids choose different friends or family members to pray for during our family time. It also helps familiarize them with loved ones we may not see in person that often. We do pitch older photos when we receive an updated one. But our album is precious to us.
Gypsy Amykate

We have always used the card fronts for gift tags on our gifts the following Christmas.
Like the last commenter, we get fewer and fewer cards but many photo cards. My dear friend shared a wonderful idea to save the photo cards on which families spend much time and money {sometimes blood and tears, too.}The last 3 years, we have placed the photos in a small, portable album. We travel all the time, but we can easily take the album with us and my kids choose different friends or family members to pray for during our family time. It also helps familiarize them with loved ones we may not see in person that often. We do pitch older photos when we receive an updated one. But our album is precious to us.
http://www.teawithdee.blogspot.com Deanna Piercy

I cut off the fronts of cards and then use them as thank you notes. You can write on the back just like a postcard and then mail them sans envelope with postcard rates. Saves money and less waste.
- Anonymous
  
  I love this idea Deanna — thanks so much for sharing!
- Anonymous
  
  I love this idea Deanna — thanks so much for sharing!
http://www.teawithdee.blogspot.com Deanna Piercy

I cut off the fronts of cards and then use them as thank you notes. You can write on the back just like a postcard and then mail them sans envelope with postcard rates. Saves money and less waste.
Erin

We punch a hole in the upper left corner on each card, then hang it on the tree. Photo cards usually go up on my daughter’s bulletin board. My daughter loves the ones that are on the tree, pulls them down to read them or look at the sparkliest ones. Plus, it fills up the large trees my husband always loves to buy!
- Erin
  
  We punch a hole in the upper left corner on each card, then hang it on the tree. Photo cards usually go up on my daughter’s bulletin board. My daughter loves the ones that are on the tree, pulls them down to read them or look at the sparkliest ones. Plus, it fills up the large trees my husband always loves to buy!
Lisachalfant

We do something similar to #5. We get mostly photo cards from families. I have a scrapbook just for the cards we receive. I keep the letters and the photos over the years. It’s fun to look back and see how everyone has changed.
Erin

We use them for thank you notes too.

We also wrap Christmas presents with white butcher paper or the blank side of paper bags.
The kids then decorate the plain paper with images that I had saved from last year’s Christmas cards.
Use glue sticks or Elmers glue applied with a watercolor paint brush.
Also, cutting images out with craft scissors gives the images a neat border and makes the wrapping paper even more “fancy.”
- http://twitter.com/PensieveRobin Robin @ Pensieve
  
  How much do I love this–I got ideas from both YOU and your readers! A double treat (and suggestions I plan to USE!).
  
  Thanks!!!
Catherine

My kids enjoy using a glue stick on the Christmas card pictures and then sprinkling salt on them to make sparkly “snow.” An easy kids’ craft.
http://twitter.com/kitchenstew Katie Kimball

What great additional ideas here! Thank you so much for enhancing the list of 5 here, ladies! Katie
Jennifer

We have a Christmas Memories scrapbook where I keep the photo cards (on the scrapbook pages) and letters (in a pocket page). It is SO MUCH FUN to go through each year and see how the families have grown over the years. If you give this idea a try, don’t forget to include your own Christmas photo card in the book. Your own kids will get a kick out of seeing themselves when they were smaller.

One funny thing with our book: we moved from FL to VA when my boys were 2 and 5 (4 years ago). There are several families we still receive cards from each year. Having not seen most of them in 4 years, the boys don’t recognize all of them any more, but if I turn back to the photos of their friends as they were 4 years ago, they remember them and they get a kick out of seeing how much their buddies have grown and changed!
Olivia

Katie, thanks as always for you wonderful ideas! I do want to comment on the wreath, however. To make it requires buying a styrofoam circle as a base…styrofoam! In that case, it’s probably greener to do something else. And I’m not so crafty, but I’m willing to challenge myself a little to reuse the loads of things we generate during the holidays
http://simpleorganic.net Nicole

I love the idea of praying over the cards! I think we’ll start doing that at dinner! xo
Aj

i glue them shut, hole punch them around the edges and use them as lacing cards for my preschooler…
Jenny V

This year I learned how to make a little gift box out of the card using the front for the top piece and the back for the bottom piece. Perfect for little gifts. Also if you have Christmas village scenes on the cards and make the boxes, it makes a cute little village to go on a windowsill or shelf.
- http://momforhim.blogspot.com MomForHim
  
  My mom taught my little girls how to make these gift boxes this year, and they are loving it! They love making them and putting little “gifts” in them to give to others, and they even sold a few for 10 cents each!
  - http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
    
    Sounds like this is a project for next year’s 101 Days series!
http://twitter.com/TheBellWitch Eeshul

We send our cards to the St. Jude’s Ranch and often gather them from friends and family as well so we can just send them all in in one big pack.
I also save all the letters and pics from this time of year to go in the memory book!
lacyfinn

The star is a great idea for Epiphany, which is coming up! thanks!
Stargazersteph

great ideas! this year i decided to quickly make gift tags out of them with my gift tag maker. i lined it up with a pretty part of the card and pressed down. i packed them all away with my christmas stuff, so that when i take them out next year, i will have gift tags for my gifts. this literally took me minutes to do.
if anyone is interested in the tool i used you can purchase one here-
http://www.creativememories.com/Content/Shop/Product.aspx?sku=637571&path=/Hierarchy/Traditional%20Scrapbooking/Tools/Cropping%20Tools/Shape%20Makers

Just put Stephanie Ringeisen as the consultant when you check out. you can also probably find a similar tool at a craft store.
http://twitter.com/D_L_Schillinger Donna Schillinger

Also cut out images on cards to use in holiday scrapbooking.
- http://lifeyourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way
  
  Ooh, I like that — thanks for sharing!