I met a super cool artist last month at the printing studio, during my riso 101 class. We decided to team up and use our free studio coupons together since you’re allowed to share riso time slots.

She taught me so much in that 4 hours we spent working together, but there is one thing in particular that won’t leave my head. She, along with other friends and collaborators, started an accountability club. They meet once per month, give updates on the goals they set the previous meeting, and then set new intentions for the month. They celebrate each others wins and encourage each other through the times when things don’t go according to plan.

I really need that in my life. So, of course I’m starting my own. It’s the perfect time for it, too. I’m finally getting back into working on my personal and artistic goals, and this is something I can immensely benefit from. I know some others that feel the same way.

Before I begin to invite everyone and get it going, I’ll need to establish some guidelines on how to operate within the club.

Setting Goals

Goals should be:

• Measurable: You’re able to determine where you are, where you need to be, and specific action items that determine when a goal is met
• Realistic: something that can be accomplished in the 1 month time frame
• Relevant: Pertaining to a larger goal or initiative you have in mind
• Compassionate: Don’t be so hard on yourself! It should be low pressure and/or in line with other priorities in your life. Compassionate is distinct from realistic in that even if it’s something that in theory could be done in a 1 month time frame, it shouldn’t be at great personal cost that causes burnout

First Meeting

Before you come to the first meeting, it’s essential that you have your goals in mind.

• Decide and set your Big Intention - what’s the larger goal? These can be a little vague
  • i.e. “I want to become a morning person”, “I want to work on my personal website more”, etc
• Take a moment to make that goal into something more definitive/measurable
  • “I want to wake up at 6am every day”, “I want to create at least 3 new features on my website” etc
• Break down those things into smaller steps. This doesn’t have to be a whole start to finish scoping/break down - just figuring out where to start is the most important thing.
  • “I will try to wake up at 7am 3 days a week to start, and create a routine so my morning feels good to wake up to”, “I will start the first feature, and scope out the first steps to make a MVP”

In the first meeting, we’ll go around and share our Big Intention and then the first step we’re going to work on for the month.

It’s probably important that we don’t talk too much about what our plans are/overall goal. There are studies that show that when you talk too much about your goals and your intentions, you get a premature dopamine release. In turn it makes you less likely to accomplish that goal.

Subsequent Meetings

• We’ll always meet at a restaurant or cafe - either way, food and/or a little treat should be involved to make it special
• We can start by going around the room and re-stating what your goal for the last month was, and sharing what you’ve done pertaining to that goal.
  • Did you reach your goal? Did you have any revelations? If you didn’t reach your goal, why not?
  • Please bring any materials necessary for show and tell!
  • Set your goal for next month, or if it’s the same goal as prior, what you’ll approach differently this time
• The entire meeting should be short and low pressure, maybe like 1.5 hours max. Folks can stick around to hang more if it feels right, but we don’t want to create any additional pressure!

Final Thoughts

We can iterate how it goes from there. It should be relatively low stress. if we want to get crazier about it, we can add accountability buddies to check in every few weeks, or any other ideas. I have a lot of creatively minded friends in my life who express issues with accountability, myself included. Hopefully this structured but low pressure way to state intentions will help us all achieve our goals, while celebrating each other’s wins and become inspired by each other.