How to Harness the Power of Accountability to Achieve Your (Health) Goals
“Tracking is CRITICAL in helping you achieve your goals because it can allow you to see how far you've come and what still needs to be done to accomplish your goal.”
If you’re like most of us you’ve probably struggled a time or two (or several times!) with reaching a goal you had for yourself. Maybe you’ve had a hard time achieving a health and wellness goal you laid out for yourself like running a 5K or eliminating sweets. Or perhaps you’ve struggled with other goals like getting a promotion at work or a better score on a test at school. Maybe you had a goal to read your Bible every day or play with your kids every night before bed and fell short. Regardless of what your goals are, we’ve all had times where we’ve fallen off the bandwagon (myself included!), but are there things we can do to try to improve our chances at success?
Today we’re going to talk about harnessing the power of accountability to help you achieve your goals! This can work with any type of goal but we’re going to focus on health and wellness goals for the time being since that is my bread and butter (no pun intended!) as a health coach and practicing nurse practitioner.
Create SMART Goals!
The first step in harnessing the power of accountability and accomplishing your health and wellness goals is to make sure your goals are SMART. “How do I know if my goal is SMART?” you may ask! Well, let’s break it down further… SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound [1]!
Specific: Try to be very specific about what you are trying to accomplish in your goal and how you will accomplish it. Try to eliminate any ambiguity [1].
Measurable: Try to make your goal something that you can easily and objectively measure [1]. Once again, try to avoid being vague in the goal you’re trying to achieve.
Attainable: Try to make sure your goal is actually attainable or realistic to achieve. What’s the point of setting a goal that is so difficult it’s pretty much impossible to reach? This will only lead to discouragement and increase your likelihood of quitting before you achieve your goal [1].
Relevant: Try to create goals that are relevant and have meaning or purpose in the context of the rest of your life or what you want for your life [1]. It doesn’t make sense to pursue goals that don’t align with your values, interests, or beliefs or goals that pull time away from other things in your life that hold even higher value to you.
Time-Bound: Lastly, try to give your goal a deadline to make it time-bound. This will help motivate you to actually start working on your goal instead of procrastinating. On the flip side, don’t be too lofty with your goals and give yourself an unrealistic deadline to accomplish something in a short amount of time when realistically it will take longer to achieve. It can be discouraging when you miss the deadline of a goal so being realistic with your deadline is key [1]!
So why is making SMART goals so important?!? It’s important because most goals we come up with are vague in nature. For example, “I want to get back in shape.” What does this even mean?!? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to be able to run a mile without stopping? Do you want to be able to do 10 pushups? Do you want to look good in a bathing suit?
You see what I mean? If your goal isn’t SMART it will be harder to know whether you’ve accomplished it or not which can be DEmotivating because it feels like you aren’t getting anywhere…
So what is an example of a SMART goal then? Let’s take the above example of wanting to get back into shape and make it SMART:
I want to lose 10 lb in 10 weeks because my healthcare provider told me that my weight is starting to affect my blood sugar. I will accomplish this by going for a 20-minute walk after supper 3 days per week with my dog, cutting my usual food portions down by approximately 25% at each meal, and adding a serving of vegetables to each meal instead. I would like to consistently incorporate these 3 new habits into my weekly routine by 2 weeks from now.
See how much better this goal is?!? This goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound! You know exactly what you want to achieve and the steps you need to take to get there. You can easily measure your progress towards achieving this goal and the goal itself is realistic. The goal aligns with your values and what you want to achieve in your future (better health and the prevention of diabetes!) and there is a reasonable deadline in place for when you would like to achieve your goal.
Start Tracking Your Progress to Hold Yourself Accountable!
Now that you created a SMART goal, let's talk about utilizing the power of tracking to hold yourself accountable! Tracking is CRITICAL in helping you achieve your goals because it can allow you to see how far you've come and what still needs to be done to accomplish your goal. Tracking helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses so you can course-correct along the way as needed [2].
Some helpful tools that allow you to track your progress include a calendar, planner, checklist, journaling, spreadsheets, or even downloading tracking apps! Try to schedule time regularly - whether it's daily, weekly, or monthly (whichever is most applicable!) to review your progress along the way. Most importantly, don't forget to reward yourself for all of your accomplishments along the way [2]! We tend to be our biggest critics, overemphasizing what we haven't accomplished and underestimating our wonderful successes! Once again, this can be extremely DEmotivating and increase the risk of quitting before you accomplish your goals.
Bring on an Accountability Partner to Help Keep You Motivated!
Accountability partners can help you stay COMMITTED to accomplishing a goal. The beauty of an accountability partner is that they can help you to accomplish more than you would on your own because not only are you accountable to yourself but you’re also accountable to your partner [3]! We tend to work harder when we know we have to check in with someone else regarding our progress.
An accountability partner is someone who can check in with you regularly and cheer you on when you are struggling to stay committed to your goals! Try to find an accountability partner who has similar goals and values to you. Better yet, find someone who is strong in the areas you're weak in and vice versa. Above all, make sure your accountability partner is someone you trust [3]! Examples of places to find an accountability partner include social media groups, parenting groups, school or other trainings, Bible studies, networking events, etc. It can feel intimidating to ask someone to be your accountability partner at first but I promise it gets easier to ask someone after a little bit of practice [4]. You’ve got this!
Figure out with your accountability partner how often you guys would like to check in with each other and let them know what you need from them so they can hold you accountable [3]! When meeting together, talk about what you have accomplished and struggled with since the last time you guys talked. Share with your accountability partner the goals you hope to tackle before the next time you guys meet up [4]. Offer to hold your accountability partner accountable to reach their own goals and provide encouragement to them as well so you guys both benefit from the relationship [3]!
Putting it All Together…
Most of us know what we need to do to improve our health, but struggle with following through and actually doing what it takes to accomplish our health and wellness goals! Creating SMART goals – goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound – greatly increases your chances of successfully achieving your health goals! Tracking your progress along the way helps to remind you how far you’ve come since you started your health journey and identify things you need to change to get from where you are right now to where you want to be in the future. Finally, accountability partners help you to accomplish more together than you would otherwise be able to achieve on your own.
To help you be more successful in achieving your health and wellness goals consider joining my FREE private Facebook community, Red Flower Healthy Living Group! In this group, you’ll get connected with other health-conscious women (and myself!) to support you in reaching your healthy living goals! My goal is that we would all lean on each other for support and maybe you might be able to find an accountability partner in the group who can help cheer you on! I also share helpful tracking tools, healthy living tips, doses of inspiration, and other wonderful resources in this FREE group to help you get started and achieve success in your health journey!
Click HERE to join the Red Flower Healthy Living Group and reach your health goals today!
Your partner in health,
Coach Tiffany
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Footnotes
[1] “How to Hold Yourself Accountable to Your SMART Goals” LeggUP, 10 June 2024, https://www.leggup.com/articles/how-to-hold-yourself-accountable-to-your-smart-goals.
[2] “How can you hold yourself accountable for achieving your goals?” LinkedIn, 20 January 2025, https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-you-hold-yourself-accountable-achieving-your.
[3] “Accountability Partners: Don't Achieve Your Goals Alone!” Duke University Recreation & Physical Education, 20 January 2025, https://recreation.duke.edu/story/accountability-partners-dont-achieve-your-goals-alone/.
[4] “The Power of an Accountability Partner” Footprints of Inspiration, 20 January 2025, https://www.footprintsofinspiration.com/the-power-of-an-accountability-partner/.