From a series of successful streaks during my days as a student to a lot of uncertain mornings and sleepless nights in a gap year, there are a lot of frustrations as one calendar day replaces the previous day. There is a greatness in terms of outcomes when you step aside from a routine and look at your life from a different angle. Equally, there can be highly ambitious people, blinded or indifferent when it comes to where they are steering their life to. Why this confusion…? It could be because you have NO accountability partner?
 
As a person, I have this need to be in a group that challenges me daily and pushes me out of my bed first thing in the morning and face the day with a smile. To put it in two words, purposeful morning. The irony is that the first thing I wake up to search for the snooze button on my phone or to a guilt of sleeping too much. I end up wasting the day and time too precious to waste. 
 
Proactivity says that you can not expect to be fed every time and that you have to be “self-driven”. Wish it were that easy to have an auto-pilot mode in life. 
 
This is where accountability partner kicks in, saving your day and your world from desolation. A little too dramatic for a person, could be your friend, but having an accountability partner makes sure you don’t waste time
 
Feels like you need a superhero every day and that is fine. I have benefited a lot by having a bunch to keep reminding me of who I am and what I should be doing. In return being an accountability partner to others, has a loop that drives you as well. 
 
“Relationships and Networking is not what you can get, but what you can give”
 
I used to wonder, if we question back the same thing to the HR during an interview,  would they flaunter in answering? Because I have been told that sometimes HR’s questions are often are the ones for which they don’t know the answer completely. But having someone question you will either wake you up or perfect your answer. It is a win-win situation. 
 
Here are some tricks I do when I am in need of an accountability partner. 
 
1- Relationships are meant for growth and freedom. So your friend is the best person you can have as an accountability partner. If the friend also happens to be a colleague, you just got two birds with one stone! I and my friend make sure there are frequent meetups to just check on the other and find out how it is going. 
 
2- An accountability group is much better. I have mentioned the benefits and how you can make use of a group in my article on goal-setting. Not having just one, but a group reminding you is a lot of learning and synergy. Interconnectedness leads to innovation! 
 
3- Humans may not be available all the time. This is where sometimes in emergency cases when there are no one around you for the day, you have to create and develop an auto-pilot mode. How!? Use your phone and change the lock screen that reminds you of your goal. This is the most effective way of creating an alarm that does not bug you. 
 
If you have an aversion for tech, I would suggest you make use of the good old habit of writing. 
 
Write your goals every morning, long ones and the day’s activity. This helps me every day and makes sure I don’t deviate towards laziness. You can make use of productivity apps off the store as well. The inbuilt notes and reminders app in your phone does a wonderful job. As you keep using it frequently, it becomes a habit. 
 
There is also one last resort to use. The yellow sticky note! Write the goal on a sticky note and paste it one a surface that you see daily. The bathroom mirror or your cupboards. More the merrier. Although it does not go with good taste for interior design, it does the job perfectly well. 
 
My days are productive because I follow all the three. Comment below if you have other versions of keeping yourself accountable. 
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