Getting Support for Your Dreams: Accountability — The Difference That Makes the Difference, Part 2
Want to get something done? Asking people to help you keep your promises and confirming that you are taking action on your goals is called accountability.
The first time I leveraged the power of accountability was in 1999 when I listened to and followed a series of Tony Robbins Personal Power II audio cassette tapes with my friend, Sandra.
As a small group of two, we were committed to ensuring each other’s success. We became each other’s accountability buddies. When one of us made a promise to take action, we held each other to it.
Over a period of 30 days, we bounced back and forth from each other’s homes every day, including weekends. Each time we met, we spent about an hour listening to the tape and then another hour doing the work associated with that cassette. We were both miserable and very serious about making the changes we wanted in our lives.
Devoting nearly 3 hours a day for 30 straight days to working together, meant making a huge time commitment. And that caused some friction in our families because our husbands and kids were not very happy with us. But Sandra and I were committed to changing our lives.
At the time I was ending an 18 1/2 year long period of managing the family real estate business. And it was my responsibility to sell the 3 buildings. I had little to no clue of how to do it or what I was doing, but I knew I had to start by fielding offers and interviewing the many landlords that had inquired about purchasing the buildings over the years. I knew I had to take steps to contact them and make plans to meet.
At the time I was very shy and hated making phone calls in general, but talking to men on the phone was really uncomfortable for me, even though I did it on a daily basis.
I always stumbled on my words and worried that I was taking too much time and was terrified of being judged or called out.
But this was important. I knew I could make those calls and speak with the men with the help of Sandra’s encouragement and “You Can Do It” pep talks. I started by writing a script that I would read to schedule a meeting with each of the buyers.
I made myself accountable to Sandra. If I promised her that I was going to make three phone calls to several interested buyers, and schedule meetings with them, then that’s what I had to do.
Asking people to help you keep your promises and do what you say you will do is called accountability. That’s the secret to success.
Thanks to accountability and Sandra’s encouragement, I gradually stretched beyond my comfort zones. After I made my first call to Susan, a local real estate broker, and met with her, that built my confidence enough to keep on stretching myself. Having that first meeting with Susan win under my belt made it easier to tackle making the calls to the male brokers and sellers on my list.
By tackling my fear of speaking to men, I became more comfortable talking on the phone and meeting with people. Through the process of evolution, I stretched out of my comfort zone and became a different person, more confident and self-assured. In the end, I sold those buildings for $10.5M. But that’s a whole other story for another day.
Joining Jodie’s Success Team
My second experience with accountability came from being a member of a larger success team.
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, I was so moved by my experience of meeting Barbara Sher and learning about success teams that I immediately signed up to join one.
This group really packed a punch and gave my goals legs. Each week we would get together and share what we had completed during the previous week. The difference was that now I was accountable to a group of 3 other women instead of just one. I realized this had some real power. It was less feasible to try to weasel out of the commitment by begging off and making an excuse, such as was possible with a friend.
Jodie was our leader and she led us through the next eight weeks with passion and poise. To this day, she still remains a dear friend of mine. I believe it has been largely due to Jodie’s faith in me that I have taken many of the leaps that I have. Without her encouragement and that of my success team, I wouldn’t have believed in myself enough to have pursued coaching, speaking, writing my books or creating my programs. On more than one occasion, my teammates Jodie, Anisa, and Shirley have been the wind beneath my wings!
Anisa is a concert violinist and her first goal was to get her CD up for sale. By the end of our success team, she was selling her CDs on CD Baby. When Shirley joined Jodie’s team she was selling long term care insurance. Her goal was to increase her visibility, book more client meetings and increase her sales to get bigger commissions. To boost her confidence and get feedback, Shirley rehearsed her pitches with our team and ended up crushing it in sales.
When I started working with Jodie’s team, I was much less focused than Shirley and Anisa. On the first day we did Barbara Sher’s Lying exercise (that I mentioned in Part 1), I had a whole armload of fantasies of what I wanted for my life.
A huge thanks goes to my team because they helped me put those pipe dreams into plans and realities. I’ve sold the buildings. I am a coach, a speaker and an author.
Without having the connection and accountability of my team, I would still be spinning like a top, unable to fix on any one thing and wishing, hoping, and dreaming my life was different.
But Jodie, Shirley and Anisa pressed me to get clear and focus on a single goal at a time.
I chose to be a speaker. With their help and support, I dipped my toe into the speaking arena by first becoming an Assistant Girl Scout Leader to a friend.
Then the next year I signed up to be a Girl Scout leader. That was my introduction to becoming a speaker.
As a Brownie leader, I led group meetings at my home on Saturdays for my daughter, Cara and the other 6 year old girls in the Brownie group. Those tender first steps were exactly what I needed to break out of my shyness, and get comfortable speaking in front of groups of people.
Then after 2 runs of Jodie leading our team, she invited me to lead the next group. I had such a blast being a success team leader.
Sadly, over the years our little success team got separated and Shirley passed away. Life happens. But I’ll never forget the indelible experience of discovering the joy and support of success teams.
In Part 3, I’ll share my experience with leading online masterminds and offline success teams. I’ll also tell you why I love accountability.
Hungry for change? Ready to nurture your dreams and make them happen? Invest in yourself to enjoy my new Meet Up walking mastermind group for women. The Juicy Woman You Can Do It Walking Club is a
soul-satisfying fun and exciting walk ‘n talk supportive group coaching experience for women. If you want to manifest a better life and you’re ready to invest in yourself so you can learn how to squash the cycle of self-doubt that holds your happiness hostage, check out my walks and membership packages: https://www.meetup.com/the-juicy-woman-you-can-do-it-walking-club/
