Hold Yourself Accountable

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode Challenge – Day 6: Hold Yourself Accountable

The key to living a life on purpose is learning how to move forward even when distractions, life-changing events and setbacks occur on your journey.

 

Feeling stuck is hard. It’s amazing how much weight it can carry and how powerful it can seem when you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere and every time you turn around, another curveball is thrown your way. Giving up on the desires and goals you have created to start living intentionally can be tempting, especially if so much time has passed and you haven’t seen the results you want.

It seems you’ll never be able to get unstuck. When you struggle for a long time and are barely getting by, it can be easy to call off the whole thing and forget about your dreams, goals, and desires, or making any improvements in your life.

While most of us probably will never compete in the Olympics, if you want to live on purpose, you’ll have to have the mind-set of an Olympian. You’ll have to make sacrifices. Get up earlier. Give up late-night dinners. Drive an older model car. Say no to that piece of chocolate cake. Study instead of seeing that movie. Invest time in your family instead of filling your social calendar with parties. That’s okay. In the long run, those sacrifices and your counter-cultural living choices will pay off with big dividends.

 

Keeping those long-term benefits in mind will help you get through the temporary discomforts. 

Maybe you just want to enjoy your life instead of running ragged, feeling lost without any direction, and struggling to find meaning in the middle of busy and crazy schedules.

 

You have to be willing to cut back, give up things, spend your time differently, and say no more often. You may even risk hearing negative comments from others. How willing you are to make changes is directly dependent upon how motivated you are to get where you want to go. What simple, short-term sacrifices can you make to help you get to where you want to be or achieve what you hope to accomplish? 

You might be thinking, “I wish I had an accountability partner, but I don’t know where to find one.” Well, it might not be as hard as you think. Anyone can be your accountability partner—your husband, parent, sibling, friend, or neighbor. Start with your local friends and family and find someone who is encouraging, committed, and not afraid to tell you the truth if you’re getting behind or off-track. He or she needs to be willing and able to take you to task if you’re not following through with the goals you’ve set. At the same time, you want someone who will give you grace and understanding when you’ve set the bar too high or when unexpected situations outside your control come up. And don’t forget to choose someone who will gladly celebrate your milestones along the way! 

 Today’s Challenge

Find an accountability partner. You can’t live a purposeful life on your own. Find a friend who is willing to keep you on task. Contact them by email or phone today and present your proposal. If they accept, schedule a start date for regular check-ins, whether online, in person, or over the phone. Share ideas on how to practically engage in an accountability relationship.

 

No more excuses! It’s time to hold yourself accountable!

You can sign up for the Challenge at the link in the picture.

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Ok, so I'm working on this Challenge, just like I told you I would.  But I am modifying it a bit. I'm going to work on an item a week, instead of an item a day.


This is a big challenge for me.  Ever since Dan died, the clutter has taken over to the point that I just want to through out everything!!  But my dear hubby has been patient with me and slowly piling the clutter so I can get through it.  But every time I try to get started on a pile of clutter, we have to go somewhere or do something else, so the clutter sits.  Let's see what I can get done this week.


Here is Day 1 (or Week 1).

Here is Day 2 (or Week 2) with my results from Day 1.

Here is Day 3 (or Week 3) with my results from Day 2.

Here is Day 4 (or Week 4) with my results from Day 3.

Here is Day 5 (or Week 5) with my results from Day 4.  I continued this day/week for an extra week due to the holidays.


Results: 
I'm still making my lists from Day 1. I don't feel I'm accomplishing as much now, the same items are still on the lists.  But then again, showering is important.  Slowly the to-do list is getting longer.  I need to really limit it to 4-5 items.

I still have my list from Day 2, and look at it but I haven't added anything to it.

I'm generally sticking to my Sunday-Thursday evening routine that I created in Day 3.  There have been a couple of days where it hasn't gone great, but it takes a few weeks to make a new habit.  I'm doing fairly well with this now.

My prioritized list of things from Day 4? I always have that, and it changes day by day.   I'm lucky I remember my name the last few weeks, and finding even 2 minutes to tackle something on the list...well, that's been tricky too.  So, I will make this a renewed effort over the rest of the 7 day challenge to work on this one a bit more.  I've tried adding this to my to-do list from Day 1 to make sure I get done the items I need to get done.

Ok, Day 5.  Well I didn't do as well as I wanted to, even extending it an extra week.  I have tackled a few *small* areas, but not as much as I wanted to do.  I think I am putting too much on my plate.  So I'm going to try to do this 1-2 times a week, not once a day.

Come back next week to see how I did on Day 6.  Crystal's book will be released on January 21.  You can pre-order it here and get some awesome freebies!!!  You can also check in with Crystal at www.moneysavingmom.com to see how she is doing with her own 7-Day Challenge!!