Hi there.  I hope the new year is going well so far.  Mine is.  I’ve decided to work with an accountability partner.  What’s an accountability partner you ask…well, it is just what it sounds like.  It’s someone you know and trust that will hold you accountable for your goals.

My accountability partner is the wonderful Emily Grace.  She and I have agreed to meet twice a week and at each meeting we have specific things we are going to do.  Though Emily is a friend, the meetings are not about that.  They are structured with very specific agenda items and schedules.  I feel this is super important because I’ve tried to do this with friends before and we always end up just chatting and not really getting much done.  The way Emily and I have structured it is so specific and we took time at our first meeting to lay out the details.  Some questions I suggest asking when you’re setting up an accountability partnership are:

• How do you like to work
  • Do you like to work at home or at a coffee shop?
  • Do you like to work out loud on everything or work for a set amount of time on your own and then bounce ideas around?
  • What kind of working environment do you prefer?
    • Do you like things to be quiet or do you prefer music?
    • If you prefer music, what kind?
    • Do you mind if the spouse or kids are around or do you need things to be totally quiet?
    • How do you want me to handle it if you don’t achieve your weekly goals?
    • How long will our meetings be?

These are just some suggestions.  Usually your accountability partner is a friend so you want to make sure you’re communicating enough so that you don’t ruin the friendship.  If you have the money and really want to make sure to get things done, I strongly suggest hiring a coach.  This is what they do.  I got lucky because Emily is both my friend and a coach.

So, Emily and I have decided that we will meet twice a week.  Mondays and Fridays and we have created a timeline for those meetings.  One of our meetings is scheduled to include an online class, which brings me to a story about why you should talk about the points I listed above before starting.

So, Emily and I are both self-proclaimed goal-setting geeks.  We love it!  And our online class is all about goal setting so we both sit down to watch the class and we’re both really excited but we hadn’t had the conversation on how we each like to work yet.  Luckily we both respect each other a great deal so it didn’t affect us too much when it was realized through a little irritation that the way I learn and the way she learns is completely different.  It was a tense couple of moments when I wanted to pause the video because I wasn’t getting stuff and she wanted to watch it through once and then go back and pause.  So, the point here is to communicate.  We are all different and we all like to do things differently and if you’re obsessed with goals the way we are, you probably have a pretty strong personality like we do so things could get a little harry if you’re not respectful and careful.

I’m super excited about 2013 and so excited to have such an awesome accountability partner.  I have some lofty goals for this year so I have high hopes for Emily to be able to help me keep on track.

I’d love to know how you are keeping your goals this year so send me a message.

Big Hugs,

Jenna

PS

I wanted to take a minute and talk about Emily because I love her philosophies.  Her main clientele is actors and actresses.  So, if you are reading this and that is you, you should really check Emily out for coaching and if you can’t afford that, sign up for her blog because it’s awesome.  She’s smart and has her stuff together and is really good at keeping you on track and we all know how hard that can be in general, but it’s especially hard if you are in the entertainment business.  She’s obviously fantastic for all around life coaching (especially goals), but really fantastic with actors and actresses.  I found her when I was producing and signed up for her blog because I liked what she was telling talent.  I wish all talent who auditioned for me would read her stuff.  Just my two cents.  Here’s the link again emilygrace.tv

Filed under: A Scrapbook Life, Scrapbook Inspiration by Jenna Edwards