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1 Secret for You to Accelerate Forming a New Habit

accountable habits Jul 05, 2017

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Forming new habits take time (Dr. Phillippa Lally's famous study out of the University College London noted on average, it takes 66 days before a new behavior becomes automatic). But, the awesome news that there is something you can do to form habits quicker and feel good about your progress. Whether it's for exercise or it's for doing something at work or forming a new productivity habit, it's super important to be accountable.

I have a guest today who is a fantastic accountability partner and incredibly important to me in forming new habits. Kona is a 3 year-old American Labrador Retriever, and she is my accountability partner to go running four days a week. I don't want to say she's annoying. Let's just say that she's persistent! Whether it's for exercise or it's for something at work (for example you need to practice for a big presentation coming up in a few weeks) it’s super important to have an accountability partner.

There's a couple different types of accountability. The best one is to have someone physically do something with you. In relation to Kona, she is my accountability partner because she's very persistent, she will not let my day go on until we go for a run AND she goes with me.

Another way that you can be accountable to form new habits is to verbalize to someone. Back to our earlier example of the big presentation. Let’s say you must practice for a presentation 15 minutes a day. You can either… A) have your accountability partner come with you and practice with them (which is ideal) or B) if you can't do that, you can put your accountability partner on notice and say, “I have this big presentation coming up and it’s very important. I need to practice 15 minutes a day, and I'm just going to call you in the morning and let you know when I'm going to start doing this." Have someone help you out that way.

A third way that you can be accountable is to yourself. That would be to write it down. You might jot on a piece of paper (again, if it's for work) “I'm going to begin practicing for my big presentation each day at 9:00am until 9:15am. It’s not only important for you to write that down once, you should do it every day and put it somewhere where you can see it.

Forming new habits can empower you to become an expert quicker and be happy and proud of a job well done. That is important too!

The one secret today for you to form new habits quicker is to get accountable:

  1. Be accountable with someone and to physically do what you're going to do with them … and/or

  2. Verbalize it to someone and do that every day until it becomes a habit … and/or

  3. Be accountable to yourself by writing something down and viewing it every day 

Here's to you being awesome!

Mental Toughness is the tool belt or catalyst which helps you to make consistent progress and to be happy along the way. Please check out the library of (free) resources on my website (www.SherylKline.com) or schedule an appointment with me if you’d like to learn more!

Please do share if you found this helpful, and keep your eyes open for "Mental Toughness Mastery" which is my new monthly livecast coming out in the next couple of weeks! I am SO excited to share this with you, and you will be the first to know once it is launched!

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