HABIT DEVELOPMENT
Social Media Is the Cheapest Accountability Coach the Internet Has Given Us
If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go with your people.
I’ve been leveraging Instagram for habit development for the past three years, including fitness, writing and vlogging.
Let me explain.
There is a Seinfeld Strategy for habit development where you maintain a daily streak of showing up, which becomes an autonomous motivation when you see the number of ticks increase with time.
It makes you avoid giving too much emphasis on the outcome and allows you to enjoy the process instead.
Then comes the accountability part. You can cheat the process when no one is monitoring you, but it would mean lying to yourself. But since I am an extrovert who gets energy by interacting with people, social media became my accountability coach to bless my discipline.
Here are three ways social media is the cheapest accountability coach the internet has given us and how to leverage it for habit development.
I have completed four 100-day streaks in the past three years and currently working on a fifth one — a 100-day vlogging challenge.
#1. Reputation.
Following your promises builds trust, which in turn helps make meaningful connections.
Committing to a decision in public makes us more likely to follow through because it puts our reputation on the line.
How does it feel when you promise something to your homies and don’t fulfil it?
That’s what social media has done to me in the commitment sphere in the last three years.
Whenever I want to develop a new habit on which I have procrastinated like a king, I start a 100-day streak on Instagram and share daily stories to maintain the streak counter.
Following your promises builds trust, which in turn helps make meaningful connections.
Trust is the fuel of all healthy relationships.
#2. Belonging.
A community gives us a purpose to move forward because our actions’ impact spans outside our lives and infects the world.
The first question I often face about my 100-day challenges is, “100 days are not easy. How do you go that far?”
The answer lies in the profound quote:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
— African Proverb
Continuously getting a sense of belonging in your journey makes you unstoppable. We thrive on a guarantee of connection based on how we survived thousands of years when technology wasn’t advanced.
A community gives us a purpose to move forward because our actions’ impact spans outside our lives and infects the world.
#3. Clarity.
Whenever you are stuck, think about one of your most significant achievements and how you got there despite everything working against you.
Visualisation is powerful in getting where you want to be by imagining what it would look like to achieve your goals.
My first fitness streak in 2019 about lifestyle transformation was not intentional. I was not planning on depending on Instagram to show up and put my reps.
I did it for fun. But when I reached day 100, the fire inspiration charged me to publish a blog on a lifestyle switch that is still one of my best-performing articles.
Whenever you are stuck, think about one of your most significant achievements and how you got there despite everything working against you.
Visualising your best self primes you to act like them because our brains can’t differentiate between imagination and reality.
“The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can’t are both right. Which one are you?”
— Henry Ford
Closing thoughts
It’s hard to stop what you are doing when people look up to you with admiration.
And it’s even harder to do what you are doing when you have an army of trollers waiting to tear you down.
Since the negativity bias will force you to stress more about the negative aspects of the journey while they are happening, it requires mental strength training to flip negativity to work for you and take inspiration from the positive people around you.
I did not finish the previous 100-day challenges in a basement.
I used all available resources, and social media (mainly Instagram) is one of them.
I made many new friends along the way, and I can’t wait to meet new people in my vlogging challenge. Today is day 21 of 100. I started on December 1.
Here is a recap for your memory if you want to reap the benefits of social media for habit development by creating accountability:
- Committing in public makes us more likely to follow through because it puts our reputation on the line.
- Having a sense of belonging brings unlimited joy in any journey, no matter how long it takes to reach the end goal.
- Visualisation is a powerful technique to remind ourselves of our purpose when one bad day tries to seep all our energy.
If you want more stories like this, my lifelong learning newsletter is for you. It includes a free eBook about how to make boring (but essential) habits effortless.
Sanjeev is a mentor, writer, and fitness enthusiast from India. He writes about lifelong learning, personal growth, and positive psychology. When he’s not engaging with students in solving their doubts or busy writing, he’s sweating either in a workout, vlogging, or petting his cat, Jim. He’s also putting fire on Instagram and Twitter.
