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What could you accomplish in 21 days if you knew someone was watching you, checking in on you, facebooking and tweeting about you? Would the goals that you daydream about become clearer, more tangible? Would you be inspired to turn them into SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely)? Would you triumph under the magnifying glass of accountability?

21 days ago, my company, Creating Answers, launched the 21 Day Accountability Challenge. We asked people to send in their goals and we chose one lucky person to support, watch, Facebook and Tweet about his or her progress towards his goals. And the lucky winner was:

Kevin Knauss of Insure Me Kevin. Hands down he was the winner. He sent us nine goals and he was clearly excited and ready to hit the ground running. We were concerned that his nine goals were a bit lofty, so we did what we do. We sat down with him and helped him translate his goals into numbers.

3

“Make my website a wealth of information and the hub of my marketing efforts” became “Blog at least 3 times per week,”

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“Expand my small group health insurance clients” became “Complete 100 direct mailings each week for the next 3 weeks,” and

1,500

“Expand and fine tune my social media marketing plan” became “Have 1,500 Twitter followers by March 14^th.” As of March 13^th, he’s at 1,300; go follow him @InsureMeKevin!

Being an entrepreneur requires a unique kind of willpower. There’s no one, in the short run, watching you every day and holding you accountable. You have to really want to do what you’re doing, and you have to follow through. In the long run, your customers will hold you accountable. If you don’t provide value, they won’t return and you’ll run out of money. That’s long term accountability. But in the short run, no one is paying attention to how you show up in your business. Kevin has made amazing progress in the past three weeks because he was willing to expose himself while propelling himself forward.

When it comes to managing our money, many of us have willpower issues. For those of us that are single, there is no one else giving us feedback about our financial decisions or asking us if we did what we said we were going to do.  We have no one to be accountable to, no one to answer to when we spent twice what we said we would on eating out. Rarely does anyone ask us the question: “are you funding your retirement?” or “do you have 3 months of reserves in the bank?” Even for those of us in a relationship, the money is often handled by one person, and the other person doesn’t really want to know what’s happening. I’ve had many a client lament that his or her partner won’t even talk about financial decisions. They just want it handled.

How can you use accountability to propel yourself forward with your finances?

• Write your financial goals down and share them with a trusted friend. Check in once every few months and tell them how you’re doing.
• Work with a Certified Financial Planner that will ask the hard questions and be honest with you about your financial health.
• Join the online community at Get Rich Slowly’s Fiscal Fitness Journals.
• Become transparent and start a blog like Save Karyn’s Grand Debt Tally.
• Join a mastermind group that focuses on your money like Financial Boot Camp.

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Stacey Powell builds financial muscles at TheFinanceGym.com and shows off Financial Art at Facebook.