For almost a full year, instead of meditating and focusing on my clients during my most productive early morning hours, I was reading the news. Thinking about this makes me shiver. I wanted to stay informed, but I also wanted a spacious, responsive mind. By consuming news first thing each day, I was inadvertently producing anxiety that consumed my creativity.
While I knew I was hurting myself by prioritizing the news, any course correction worked only temporarily before I’d return to the familiar habit. But, the stark difference between my mindset on news-consuming days versus meditation days motivated me to try something new: I went to a group of friends and told them about my addiction to the morning news. I told them that I received a fleeting energetic reward from the drama of the news, but I gained an even bigger reward by meditating and focusing on my most important client work
first. I committed to my friends that I would start postponing the consumption of news until 11am.
That was several months ago. I think I stayed on the higher reward path because I couldn’t bear the idea of letting my friends down. Just asking 5 friends to hold me accountable made the difference; it feels like magic, and that’s how I feel about accountability.
Here’s how to transform intention into reality:
- Think about a beneficial action that has a 70-80% probability of happening and a near 100% probability of adding value to you and those around you. Find that sweet spot between challenge and achievability—for example, if you’re new to exercise, walking for ten minutes daily is more realistic than promising yourself a two-hour run.
- Formulate a clear statement about the action. (My example: Start postponing the news until 11am.)
- Acknowledge what's holding you back (the fleeting satisfaction from habitual behavior), then identify the greater reward that awaits when you follow through.
- Find a friend or group of friends and tell them what you intend to do. Ask them to provide supportive accountability by asking you about your intended action, every 1-3 months.
You might be thinking: “What if I commit and then fail?” (Perhaps I, too, will occasionally revert to starting the day by scrolling headlines.) Remember that setbacks are natural - they happen to all of us. But even if you revert to eating a bag of potato chips one night, you can still celebrate that you had x days of not eating chips (those chip-free days would not have happened without your commitment and accountability system).
Take advantage of the magical property of accountability. Once you declare something to others who hold you accountable, it is much more likely to happen.
I invite you to share your intention with me directly. What meaningful action are you committing to that has both a high probability of success and significant positive impact?
Sometimes, taking that first step of putting your intention into words can be the most powerful catalyst of all.
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