There is no question in my mind that accountability can help you to reach your goals. Yet, some of our personalities dread the word “accountability.” We are free spirits that enjoy our independence. The last thing that we want is someone “lording” over our every move. Trust me, that is exactly how I have felt in the past. Even if you have an independence streak like me you need to be accountable at some level. I have often found that peer accountability works best for me.

I need someone who can question me on things I want to get done. In other words, I supply them with a list of items that I want to get done between now and a certain date. I get to work knowing that someone is going to ask me if I got done what I said I was going to get done.

I have a coach that I meet with ever now and then. We were talking about some of the challenges I have been facing at taking my online business to the next level. He asked me some great questions, and then we got on the topic of accountability. I told him how helpful peer accountability had been for me in the past. At the end of our session, he gave me a task to come up with 10 different ideas on how I could be held accountable. I originally thought it was going to be a simple task, but later I discovered that it was going to take some thought. I wanted all 10 ideas to be things I would actually use.

I decided to share that list with you hoping that it might spark some ideas for yourself. If you are currently not accountable to someone, then I would recommend that you start seeking out someone. This is especially important for those of you that work from home as you are your only boss.

10 Ideas on Improving Your Personal Accountability to Others

1. Email a weekly report on what I did with my weekly goals

2. Share a monthly email with accountability partners (I would send out an email with goals for the month and then last day of the month update everyone on what I did or did not accomplish).

3. Use Whiteboard at home to track weekly goals and snap a photo and email to accountability partners each Sunday afternoon so they can see the progress. (this would be the simpliest thing to implement) Probably my favorite…

4. Hire an accountabilty coach – there are some online.

5. Use JoesGoals.com to track daily actions and allow others to view progress or lack of progress

6. Post a weekly goal on facebook and then update results later in the week (that would really put me out there).

7. Post relevant weekly goals to blog readers as a way to hold myself accountable to publishing goals. UPDATE: I actually did this recently on my other blog (BloggingYourPassion.com). I made a goal of writing a book in 30 days!

8. Use goalhappy.com iphone app to easily track daily/weekly goals and email results to accountability partners

9. Use 42goals.com as a way to stay accountable (easy to update as well).

10. Use idea of getworksimple.com that will publish goals to Twitter and facebook to hold you accountable.

There you have it. I hope some of those ideas get you thinking. What ways do you like to be held accountable?