Make accountability steps to keep yourself on track with your goals

Are you thinking about your New Year's resolutions, or just deciding to start a new habit? Make sure you create accountability steps to set yourself up for success!

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Usually the thing that separates the successful New Year's resolutions from the unsuccessful ones is how detailed they are.

Saying "I will go jogging 3 times a week and run a 5k on May 7th" instead of "I will run more" is how you give yourself an easy, solid way to track your commitment and progress. 

In my case I'm actually already doing the usual resolutions I would have made! It feels really good to not have to put energy into these things in the new year, because I put in the work this year and they are just things I do now. What has really helped me stay on track is having certain days that I do things -- like Monday + Thursday are leg days, while Tuesday + Friday are upper body days -- and having trackers in my bullet journal. I am such a sucker for crossing things off!

As you will see most of my accountability steps are through my journal. Having a box to color in is both a good reminder and motivation! Just like Pokemons, you gotta catch'em all! ;) 

To keep myself even more accountable, and maybe give you some ideas for resolutions and accountability steps for yourself, here are the things I'll keep doing and also some new things I plan to do!

What I will continue doing

Lift weights 4 times a week

If I don't lift weights or exercise for a few days, my body starts to feel tired and achy. It's really good incentive to keep my workout routine when the Lyme disease requires it! It doesn't hurt either that I love lifting weights. ;) 

Accountability step:
Track it in my bullet journal

Related article: The #1 secret to feeling confident

Journal before bed

This year I have noticed a huge difference in my anxiety levels if I write in my journal before bed every day, or at least the majority of the week. Writing things out stops the thoughts going round and round in my head, so I can let them go. I find it so important that I started tracking it to remind myself to do it! 

Accountability step:
Track it in my bullet journal

Do monthly bookkeeping

In October 2019 I bought the Your Money on Purpose budgeting pack from Christine at The (mostly) Simple Life. For someone who had never managed to budget or successfully track her finances before, it was a complete game changer!! (Check out her blog, you can get a lot of her budgeting printables for free!)

​Since then I have created sink funds for recurring expenses, built up my savings enormously, and tracked all my income and expenses. This year Christmas presents didn't take a single dollar out of my bank account, because I had put aside a small amount every month earmarked for gifts!

This summer the HVAC broke the day we turned it on, but since I have both a sink fund for house repairs and an emergency fund with over three months' salary (so far) I didn't have to stress about it! Luckily in the end our home warranty company took care of almost all of it, but the fact that a $5,000 expense wouldn't break the bank was an AMAZING feeling. A year ago that would have sent me into credit card debt!

Accountability step:
Fill in the budget folder as the month goes on and go through it all on the 1st of every month to complete it and set up for the new month.

Photo by Micheile Henderson

Have monthly and weekly spreads in my bullet journal

I have been doing this since 2018, and for someone who gets easily overwhelmed and also has a really bad short-term memory lol it's a life saver. Keeping track of appointments, phone calls with friends, cleaning, random things that need to get done, workouts -- it really calms me to have it all in one place, have checkboxes to cross off, and mentally prepare for the coming week and month. 

​I also like to track random things like paying off a medical bill, Christmas movies to watch, or log my rosacea symptoms. I also just made a week-by-week meal plan page for January, so I can easily see what we've had and get inspiration for future weeks. The sky is the limit! 

Accountability step:
Prepare the weekly and monthly spreads in advance and check in on them daily.

Related article: How to schedule your day -- A guide for the easily overwhelmed​

Prepare for the week on Sundays

On Sundays I meal prep vegetables for the week, clean out my purses, sort through mail, and steam clothes. It really helps to have a certain day where I do these things to save time and clutter during the week.  

I also do self-care, like a honey-turmeric face mask, paint my nails, have a bubble bath. . . I have noticed that I feel a lot better if I pamper myself regularly (strange, I know) and by scheduling it in I make sure I prioritize myself. 
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Accountability step:
Write these weekly tasks in my bullet journal

Explore new food cultures

We love to cook and decided to try out different food cultures. The first week we did a new Japanese recipe every day -- and quickly discovered that we don't have the energy to do that after work. After a while we tried again, this time more realistically by only doing it on the weekends.
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So far we have covered Greece, Brazil, and France, spending a few weeks on each country, and we have gotten so many new delicious recipes to our dinner rotation! Brazilian food is AMAZING. I spent 3 months there when I was studying massage therapy, but damn I didn't eat like this! 

By doing this we get to explore new flavors and increase our skills. It's something we can do together or at least discuss how it turned out and things we might do differently. 

Accountability step:
I meal plan every week, so simply write down the dish on the list and add the groceries needed.

​Photo by Soroush Karimi

What I will start doing

Stay on top of my inbox

I just wrote about having to tackle my inbox once again, and just as I did a year ago I once again vow to not let it get out of hand again!

Accountability step:
Take care of emails when I see them and delete/move them to the appropriate folder. Keep the inbox at zero!

Plan more dates

Even though we spend a lot of time together (quarantining and all lol) I want to have more properly planned dates! Like going out on little adventures, having a candle-lit bubble bath, ​and if the vaccine gets things back to somewhat normal next year maybe we can even go to a concert! We definitely had more dates when we could actually go places. But we got some good ones in this fall too, like a camping trip, a weekend in a cabin, an afternoon kayaking. . . you just have to be a bit more creative to find safe pandemic dates!
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Accountability step:
Add it to my monthly to-do list and schedule it in.

Go hiking

There's a lake trail half an hour away where Rosco can be off-leash, and in spring/early summer I was going once a month. I want to start doing that again, even though it's winter, cause it's such a joy to see him run back and forth on the trail exploring! It's also so great for me to get out in nature in a place I'm actually alone and not surrounded by fellow hikers.

​Accountability step:
Add it to my monthly to-do list and schedule it in.

​Photo by Stephen Goldberg

Write more

This year I focused more on physical hobbies, to have an outlet for all the stress this year and enjoy the nice weather. But I really enjoy writing so much, so I will make more of an effort to make sure I do it. Once I start, the words just flow!
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​Accountability step: 
Post at least one post every month.

Prevent uneccessary stress

A really big trigger for my Rosacea is stress and anxiety. And pretty often I get really stressed about a situation that totally could have been avoided! Like not waking up early enough to have time for all my morning routines and having to cut my workout short and rush through a shower while risking clocking in late. Or, my never-ending story, not getting ready to leave the house early enough! Although the pandemic has eliminated most of that problem for now. ;) 

So as of last week I have started to make a more conscious effort to avoid this. If I wake up later than planned I reassess and see if there's actually time for everything I want to do comfortably -- if not, I see what can change. The most common has been to move my workout to my lunch break.

Accountability step:
Give myself plenty of time to get ready ready before leaving/clocking in, i.e. 5-10 minutes more than I think I need.

Find a long-term therapist

I don't really feel comfortable with the therapist I was working with this summer -- twice she cut our sessions off after just half an hour even though I was literally talking, and I get the feeling she doesn't think I have enough problems to warrant her time. ???

Related article: Breaking up with your therapist

It's a very crappy way to feel about your therapist, who you're supposed to be able to trust with your innermost feelings and thoughts, so I am determined to find a good fit for me in January. I just had a session with someone new two weeks ago, but she didn't seem to listen to half of the things I said, so I will just have too keep looking. I want to have monthly sessions in 2021, just to talk about things in a safe space and get a professional's perspective. But I do need it to be with someone who I trust and feel respected by!

Accountability step:
Schedule an appointment with a new therapist during New Year's week when I have time off, and set up a standing monthly appointment.

Dance more

Something I realized this year is how much the personal connection matters to my enjoyment of dance. Since I couldn't go blues or swing dancing most of this year, I didn't dance all too much. Every now and then, when I either felt extremely stressed or really missed partying, I would go into the basement, turn the music up loud, and just lose myself in it. It's an incredible stress relief and mood booster. 

So I am going to dance more this year! Hopefully it will be possible to actually dance with my friends at some point, but until then I will keep having little random dance parties for myself around the house and learning some new moves from online tutorials. Just a few days of this have honestly made me feel more comfortable in my body already, because I get so much enjoyment out of it, even if it's not the same as dancing with a partner.

Accountability step:
This is purely for enjoyment, so I won't make it less fun by making it a chore. I will play more music while cooking instead of having a TV-show in the background, dance as a warm-up before my workouts, and listen to something upbeat as I get ready in the morning. 

​Photo by Lukas Eggers

I hope you got some ideas for your own resolutions! I don't necessarily think that January 1st is when you have to start new habits, but it's as good a time as any. And since that time happens to be now, no time like the present! Make sure to grab your free mental health planner bundle below, with a daily planner, workout tracker, and more to help you out!

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Related articles:

• 8 ways to create lasting habits
• How to finish the year feeling good about yourself
• The 20 best inspirational quotes to motivate you when you feel stuck

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