Accountability 101: Every Goal I Have for 2011 + Why You Should Care

12 Jan Accountability 101: Every Goal I Have for 2011 + Why You Should Care

Written by Scott Dinsmore – Follow me on Twitter.

“Accountability breeds response-ability.”

~Stephen Covey

If you spent any time with last week’s Goal Setting post and totally Free Action Workbook (already has over 650 downloads!), hopefully you have some Epic goals and a killer plan to make them happen in 2011.

I’ve taken a few days this week to do the same and I am fired up!

Accountability = Results

That’s the simple equation.

I want to get personal and show you a raw view into my world (vulnerability also happens to be a resolution of mine).

The best way I’ve found to stay true to a goal or dream is to tell your most important people. For some reason we’d rather keep our word with others than with ourselves.

The point is telling others works.

To be honest, telling you all this makes me a bit nervous…and that’s the point!. If I tell you all my goals, then I better work my ass off to make them happen. So instead of choosing just four people close to me for accountability (like recommended in my workbook), I’m choosing all 2,627 of you.

Thanks in advance for keeping me honest. The good news is you will benefit in a huge way if some of the below become reality.

So…here you have it. Below are my big (and small) plans for 2011. I will update this post throughout the year to show you progress. Please do the same in the comments.

2011 Resolutions/Habits

If you haven’t noticed I’m a learning and improvement fanatic. It’s the best way I know to better understand myself. Which allows me to lead a more congruent life. And that makes for a happy me.

Taking a page out of a good friend, Leo Babauta’s book, I find it best to focus on a max of one new habit or resolution at a time (ideally no more than one a month). The good news is that for the super ambitious, this still allows for 12 new habits a year! I recommend fewer.

For me they are:

• Be where I say I’m going to be, when I say it (i.e. be early)
• Read less, apply more
• Write something five days a week
• Less email: both time spent responding and emails sent – 2/1/11: found a great outsource group in Canada
• Get the appropriate amount of sleep: for me that means at least 7.5hrs
• Simplify: a few ideas include declutter, consume fewer things, pack less
• Singletask: pure focus on current project, pick a max of 1-3 MIT’s (most important tasks) to slow-work on each day.
• Spend less money: focus on needs instead of wants

2011 Goals

These are divided into my life Areas of Attention. You’ll notice I try to give mine fun and inspiring names. I think you’ll figure out which category is which. Things in blue mean they’ve already happened.

Fly Out of the Gym:

Let’s start where life and success begin for me – health. I absolutely love Fitness Challenges. Especially 30-day challenges. I have a feeling a lot of this year’s will come from what I’ve learned from The Four Hour Body (4HB). Also, for some online accountability check out Mary Jaksch’s virtual fitness challenge.

As a side note I love ‘tearing the walls down’ each January so that I have a sweet physical and mental base to build off for the rest of the year. In prior years that has meant a 6-day Master Cleanse, a month of Bikram hot yoga or the Slow Carb Diet this year.

Here’s what’s on tap so far (this will surely grow):

• Slow Carb Diet, Crossfit, 6 Minute Abs (all from 4HB) – Completed month of Jan; I lost 5.1 lbs (down to 179), 6.5 total inches and ended at 10.3% body fat (wasn’t able to measure starting body fat).
• Get Big: Gain 5-10 lbs of lean muscle-I’ll be competing virtually with my good buddy and party hostel owner out in Australia
• Escape from Alcatraz Swim, Total Immersion Swimming
• Spartan Challenge
• Marathon (it’s possible I’ll hit the Tahoe Rim Trail again, with enough arm twisting…)
• Climb Half Dome, Yosemite
• Get back into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• Increase my hip and hip flexor flexibility – 2/2/11: Found 3 core exercises and do them 5x/wk

Helping People Find Freedom:

1. Help a minimum of 4 more people live life on their terms via my Personal Freedom Coaching.
2. Post awesomely useful and actionable articles weekly on my site and monthly guest posts on top sites (at first I set a goal of growing to 10,000 subscribers, but realized that’s not in my control. What is in my control is how hard I work to help you all. So that’s where I’ll focus).*
3. Rebrand and positioning my site so it’s more focused on my dedication to helping people find their path and do work that matters.
4. Offer at least 3 interviews/talks/seminars for other blogs, websites, groups or companies.
5. Get a sweet routine writing gig (paid or unpaid) for a monster site who’s values/mission are complimentary to mine – 1/30/11: Got a sweet writing gig with WorkAwesome.
6. Launch an eBook and course to further guide people from career/life frustration to doing sh*t they love!

*By the way, if any of you have a similar goal of creating a rocking blog business, I suggest you check out the A-List Blogger Club. People ask me about this all the time. They just opened the club up to new membership and it’s made all the difference for me. Cost of a few cups of coffee.

Building the Snowball:

1. Continue to do our job.
2. Grow our Investment Partnership from $3m to $6m with Partners who ‘get it’.
3. Organize and have lunch with Warren Buffett (and 30 like-minded buddies-let me know if you’re interested).

Never Stop Exploring:

1. Explore Chile and Argentina fishing with my father (our favorite father/son adventure) – 2/15/11: What an adventure! Check out the pictures.
2. Work from Italy for a few weeks or more.
3. Learn what Burning Man is all about (i.e. attend!).

Expand the Mind:

1. Meet fellow business builders and allies at Summit Series.
2. Meet fellow lifestyle designers and bloggers (and more allies) at World Domination Summit.
3. Watch more TED Talks: my bus ride to the office with my iPad makes this easy – 3/3/11: Watched over 30 so far. Unreal inspiration!
4. Spirit Rock 1-2 day Vipassana meditation retreat.

Give it Away:

1. Participate in Tony Robbins’ Basket Brigade over the holidays.
2. Donate 5-10 hours a month to a cause I stand for.
3. Give books and informational/inspirational gifts when I come across people who clearly need them.

So there you have it. I am officially on the hook. My only choice is to make it happen.

Please, if any of you have specific expertise in any of these areas, I am all ears and promise to be a sponge. Seriously drop me a note.

Share Your Goals and Create Your Reality

Now you’ve seen the magic I plan to make in 2011.

How about you?

Do you actually care about making progress this year? If so then let’s get raw in the comments below and let us know how you want to make a dent in the world. Big or small I don’t care. Maybe you want to lose 2 pounds or take your company public. It’s all sacred and worthy of sharing.

Let’s hit it!

“You don’t choose the day you enter the world and you don’t chose the day you leave. It’s what you do in between that makes all the difference.” ~Anita Septimus

What are your goals? Share them in the comments. Add some accountability. Who knows, maybe one of the other 2,626 readers or I can help.

Next week we’ll dig into what I learned from last year and how we can all use it for 2011.

Grab Your Free Goal Setting and Action WorkBook – 3,200+ downloads so far!

Over 3,200 downloads in a few weeks blew my mind! It also showed me something: People want guidance with crushing through goals.

If you didn’t catch it last week, because I so badly want meaningful results for my readers, I created a totally Free Goal Setting and Action Workbook for stepping through the process described in last week’s Goal Setting post and achieving moster things in the new year. I suggest you print it out and put pen to paper.

Take Advantage!

Image courtesy of vramak