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So that you don't have to go find blogs and articles yourself. I find the best authors online, in my opinion, and simply read them to you for free. So let's continue the tradition and start optimizing your life. How to increase your motivation in two minutes per day by Benjamin Hardy of Benjaminhardy.com.
When most people think of accountability partners, they cringe. It feels like a lot of work, it feels hard, but it's not. It's essential to making extreme progress in your life. It's also very easy, something you can do in less than two minutes per day.
In this short article, I'm going to explain what makes a great accountability partnership. I'm then going to break down a very simple way you can do daily accountability with your partner in a way that is motivating, but not overwhelming. Soaked? Let's start.
Obstacle number one, looking for the wrong thing. The number one mistake people make that stops them from starting an accountability partnership is thinking that they need to find someone with similar interests or goals as them. That is totally bogus. It's actually better to have someone who isn't doing the same things you are.
The purpose of accountability isn't shared interest, but shared accountability. It seriously doesn't matter what your accountability partner is trying to accomplish. It doesn't matter if you've ever met them in person. The only thing that matters is finding someone who will hold you accountable.
Find someone with the same level of ambition and desired accountability as you. That's it. Obstacle number two, losing momentum and quitting. Once you find someone who wants the same level of accountability as you, then you need a simple and fast system.
Daily accountability is the best way to form a habit and rhythm with your partner. If you try to do weekly, you'll likely lose track or forget. You don't want to lose momentum. Aside from getting obsessed with finding the right partner, the second biggest mistake is losing momentum before you even start.
Daily accountability is essential. It's how you get into a rhythm and stay on track. That's the purpose of accountability. It's not about friendship.
It's not about kinship. It's not about fun. Accountability is about getting results in your life. Do you want results?
Or are you just looking for a friend? Accountability partners will become some of your best friends, but only because you are pushing each other forward. The purpose of the relationship isn't to be friends. It's actually almost better if you choose someone who isn't already a friend.
The sole purpose of the relationship should be accountability. That's it. Obstacle number three, trying to do too much. In the book, Atomic Habits, James Clear wisely shares a principally calls the art of showing up.
He tells the story of a man who wants to establish a habit of going to the gym every day. So he spent the first six weeks limiting himself to only five minutes in the gym. He'd go to the gym every day for five minutes and then force himself to leave. But when you just stay there, it feels already there.
Because he wanted to establish the habit of just showing up. As Clear states, quote, you cannot optimize what you don't have, end quote. People focus too much on the end game, rather than starting. Most of the friction to success is getting yourself going.
So rather than being overly ambitious, your accountability partnership needs to be extremely low friction and easy. It shouldn't take more than two minutes per day. Here's how it works. Two minute, daily accountability.
Every morning, shoot your accountability partner a text or email if that's preferred. Stating your three goals for the day. At the end of the day, you report how you did. In addition to reporting on your big three, you should also list the three things you'll do the next day.
Then the next morning, you re-list the same things you did the night before. The reason you want to report your results for the day and list the three things you'll do the next day is that it removes decision making the next morning. These two text messages should take you less than two minutes to type out per day. Friction free, weekly accountability, optional.
Once you master the art of showing up with these daily texts, you may add in a weekly element. Every week on Sunday nights, in addition to reporting on our daily three, we also list our big three for the following week. Friction free, monthly accountability, optional. In addition to daily and weekly, you may share your monthly goals with each other.
This is optional. Again, don't go overboard before you get started. It's powerful to share your monthly goals with each other, but don't bring these into your daily accountability. The purpose of this type of accountability is consistency and lack of friction.
However, sharing big picture goals with each other can be powerful. Remember, the accountability partnership is intended to serve you, not you serve it. Conclusion, pulling it all together. Every day my accountability partner and I send two texts to each other.
At the beginning of the day, we simply list our three objectives for the day. At the end of the day, we report from how we did, BG two out of three, and then list our three objectives for the next day. We do this to eliminate decision fatigue and set ourselves up for a powerful morning routine. Once per week, we share our three objectives for the week, and at the end of the week, we report how we did on those objectives, CG three out of three.
Every month, we share our monthly objectives. We also do a 30 to 60 minute phone call to discuss how our month went. That's it. In the past month, I've overcome bad habits and emotional blocks to help me back for a really long time.
The core purpose of accountability and reporting or progress is awareness. You can't improve what you're not actively aware of. This is the reason most people never become excellent at things. They don't track and report their progress daily.
If you want to become successful in any area of your life, you need to measure and report how you're doing daily. This will force you to focus on it. What you focus on expands. Your greatest asset is your conscious awareness.
When you become conscious of something and then aggressively seek improvement in that thing with tangible goals and reporting of progress, your momentum will skyrocket. You just listened to the post titled, How to Increase Your Motivation in Two Minutes Per Day by Benjamin Hardy of Benjaminhardy.com I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on. Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it. One simple app test covers over 100 biomarkers, and their app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins.
Plus, it used to cost $499 right now. It's just $199. And head to superpower.com and use code old at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership. All right, I'll keep this ending pretty short, but I do want to mention if it was hard to imagine what some of those texts would look like, he actually provides screenshots of texts with real-life examples.
So that's where checking out, you can find the original article linked in this episode's description and at oldpodcast.com. As I'll do it for today, thank you for listening every day. Have a great weekend if you're listening in real time, and I'll see you tomorrow as usual, where you're optimal life.