By Jack Studnicky
I have weighed between 200 and 202 pounds for more than fifty years. Then the pandemic came in March of 2020, within months, I was up to 209 pounds. However, I had a good excuse—the lockdown. The lockdown affected my typical patterns, so there was a logical reason for losing focus and gaining weight.
Yeah, sure.
Our daughter's 10th birthday was coming on July 9th, and she asked for AirPods for her birthday. I immediately enlisted her as my accountability partner to help me get down to 199 pounds by her birthday. I had 39 days.
With AirPods as an incentive, my daughter got a 30-day whiteboard and hung it in the kitchen. She then dragged my bathroom scale to the kitchen and carefully logged my weight on the whiteboard every morning.
My benevolent guard allowed me to have a glass of wine at dinner on weekends, which was the hardest part for me. But with her "holding my feet to the fire," I weighed in at 198 pounds on her birthday.
Before we celebrate, I must admit my victory was short-lived! The whiteboard wasn't updated again, and the scale was taken out of the kitchen. I soon weighed in at 208.5 pounds.
Keeping commitments is hard. It is much easier and smarter to stay focused when working with an accountability partner—a reliable person you know will hold your feet to the fire.
Being accountable to others is a silent motivator that reminds us to keep our commitments.
Many people think if they don't make commitments, they won't be held accountable. The truth is they are only harming themselves. They are slowly weakening themselves and doing their character great harm. They may think they are "staying under the radar," but others are judging them as unreliable.
As a leader, you are looked upon as a successful person. Yet even those who have risen to prestigious positions must admit that they don't always keep commitments to themselves.
