Find an Accountability Buddy who Makes You Reach Your Goals

DAY 3 – Please do not think I’m one of those “social media gurus” trying to sell you on lifestyle design. Unless you are running for office or promoting a cause, I don’t want your money. I tweet and FourSquare my life, but I’m not one to share the more intimate parts of my life.

So why am I doing this?

People need accountability. I need you to hold me accountable. I want to help hold you accountable.

“Get up Wesley! Just six more!” Darrell, the gym instructor, kept yelling at me today, pushing me harder than I have ever been pushed. It was one of the hottest days yet in Columbia and I made the mistake of signing up for an “extreme tire workout.” We spent one full hour on the tractor tires. Push, pull, flip, step-ups, jump downs and by the time we hit our ab workout, I hit my wall. Darrell kept pushing and I slowly I made it to the one-hour mark. My head has been hurting ever since and my entire body feels like Jello, but I finished. And I wouldn’t have had Darrell not kept pushing me.

I have found that in every aspect of my life, I have a tendency to fall to peer pressure. School and business have been two of the only aspects where that wasn’t true. I have always been so determined to be more, that I pushed myself through school and I continue to grow my business with all my might. However, I found the phrase “you are what you eat” to be true elsewhere. When I’m around drinkers, I drink. When I’m around fried chicken, I eat fried chicken. When I’m around sinners, I sin.

That’s why it is so important to find people to hold you accountable. At the gym, Darrell and Tom keep pushing me. It is why I started this new workout and abandoned my old gym. At Anytime Fitness, as great a gym as it is, it was just me on a treadmill. When I was feeling tired, I just quit. You can’t do that at Fight Club University.

I attend Sunday school class with a great group of guys who I also have breakfast with every Wednesday morning at Lizard’s Thicket. They email me throughout the week to let me know they are praying for me. They hold me accountable in my faith. My wife holds me accountable in my personal life and in my marriage. On the flip side, no one is making me learn to play this dang harmonica, and while it has been on my to do list for 3 years, I still have not learned. What I need is an instructor who I have to meet at a certain time, who will hold me accountable. If you know of anyone in Columbia, SC, please let me know.

If you are struggling to get something done in your life or to just make sure you are walking a straight line, find some accountability buddies. Make sure they are responsible, a good influence and everything you want to be. In the meantime, I hope you’ll all stay on my butt and make me blog everyday, because I’m already having some difficulties on that front.