I kinda hate the word “accountability.” It feels so strict and demanding. But despite it’s stern nature, accountability can be an extremely helpful tool in creating new habits and breaking bad ones. This blog is my final segment in my series on how to make changes that stick. If you missed the previous blogs go ahead and give them a quick look over: The Baby Step Method to Changing Your Habits, Why It’s Good to Get Disturbed, and Set Yourself Up For Success. And if you are not too sick of this subject keep reading, I’ll make it worth your while.

Now that you are all set up to make some great changes in your life the next step to keeping yourself on track is to embrace accountability. And there are many ways of going about this. For instance if you are changing your diet a great way to stay accountable is to record everything you eat into a food journal. Did you just sneak a handful of M&M’s from the candy dish while no one was looking? Write it down. Did one spoonful of peanut butter turn into 5? Write it down. Why does writing this down help? One, because it forces you to get honest about your binging habits. And two, because it guilts you and shames you into not wanting to repeat that behavior again. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s the truth. I’m not going to sugar coat this theory, sometimes keeping yourself accountable makes you feel like shit. “The truth shall set you free, but first it will piss you off.”  Now the whole point is not to stay in this place of hating on yourself, but to let it empower you to make better choices the next day. Eventually you will stop reaching for the M&M’s and the peanut butter, because you will associate them with a negative feeling that you don’t want to experience again. And if you want to step it up in the accountability department share your food journal with someone else like a doctor or a coach. Just knowing that someone else is going to read what you wrote will motivate you to make healthy food choices.

Enlisting someone else’s help in keeping you accountable is a great way to accelerate the changing process. Having a coach, mentor, doctor, trainer, or even just a friend check in with you and your progress on a regular basis can be highly motivating. This is why people hire personal trainers when they want to get fit. They could easily do the same exercises on their own, but when you have someone else watching you exercise you will push yourself so much more then if they weren’t looking over your shoulder. You are also more likely to stay on a set schedule and show up on time for your workouts when you know someone else is waiting on you. I love having a coach, because it holds me to higher standard of responsibility. My coach will be sure to keep me accountable and holds me to being the best that I can be. When I have to take action that is well out of my comfort zone I am much more likely to go through with it just out of the knowing that I told my coach I would. So with whatever changes you are making enlisting the help of someone else can be just the kick and the pants you need to get motivated and push yourself through those uncomfortable moments.

Now accountability doesn’t have to be all about brutal in your face honesty. One method that I use to keep myself on track is a rewards system. I started doing this when I was in graduate school as motivation to study and work on projects and papers. For instance one time I had a research paper that was due at the end of the semester. Now I knew that the end of the semester would be crazy with having to study for finals and it would behoove me to finish that paper a few weeks ahead of time. So I gave myself a deadline date to get the paper done by and threw in a little extra motivation. If I fully completed the paper by X date I could buy myself a new pair of shoes. I even picked out the specific pair of shoes I was coveting ahead of time so that I was extra motivated. And it totally worked! Whenever I didn’t feel like sitting down to work on this paper I thought about that pair of shoes and got focused real quick. See I like to shop….a lot. So for me shopping is an awesome reward system for getting things done and making changes. When someone wants to lose weight the promise of a brand new wardrobe can be extremely motivating. Some people find the “cheat day” works really well for dieting. In this case you eat healthy 6 day out of the week and on the 7th day you give yourself a splurge meal and eat whatever you want. When a patient comes to me that wants to quit smoking I tell them to set aside all the money that they would normally spend on cartons and save up for an item that they really want. I find that the rewards system is a really fun way to keep yourself accountable, and it gives you an excuse to shop!

Accountability cultivates integrity and responsibility. It makes you face the truth and helps you to make the necessary changes in your life, and helps to make those changes more sustainable. I like to think of accountability as tool and a teacher rather then a strict, rigid way to live. Cause lets face it, making major changes is not a walk in the park. You are literally rewiring your brain! So it takes time and it takes consistency. But when you put all these practices I’ve mentioned in the last few blogs to use you’ll find  this process to be a heck of a lot easier and a lot more sustainable.

One last thought to ponder before I put this “change” subject to rest for awhile. Picture yourself a year from now. How do you want to be living your life? Who is the person you want to become? Now from this place, what has to change in your life for you to make that vision you just created a reality? Figure out what has to change and make it happen. And if you want to be extra accountable dare to share what changes you are ready to make in the comments below.