Financial Journey
(featured column)
Accountability
– A Key Success Factor
by
Karen Kuebler
I learned a
valuable lesson this year about accountability and how it contributes to our
success. Actually, it began when I made a decision that I thought would be
a big money saver and the results were not what I had expected. More...
In March of 2004, I joined Weight Watchers (WW) to lose some
weight that I had gained over a period of six months. The gain started
when I had foot surgery and couldn’t exercise for a few months, and then
continued as I experienced the loss of a very close family member in January of
2004.
I joined WW with a goal of losing 40 pounds. I stuck with it, and lost
about 30 pounds by August. Then I hit that great brick wall – the
‘plateau.’ I remained frustrated through the end of the year as I
continued to be stuck in one place.
The meetings cost $12 per week. If you miss a meeting or two, you have to
pay for the missed meetings. The maximum WW will charge is the cost of
registration if you have missed several weeks of meetings. Having said
this about their payment plan, I still strongly believe that WW is a fantastic
program.
I had just developed our new budget for the year of 2005, and I had made it a
rather aggressive budget because we are saving for some expensive travel in
2006. So I had this ‘bright’ idea! I could buy an annual pass
for $60 which would enable me to not pay for any missed meetings.
Since I knew the WW plan backward and forward, I decided that I could follow the
plan and hit a meeting about once a month. Approximate dollars saved would
be $36 per month and I would more than breakeven in 2 months. I had
actually expected to hit my weight goal earlier in 2004 and once I maintain my
weight goal for 6 weeks, I become a Lifetime member and don’t have to pay for
meetings. Since that didn’t happen, I decided this would save quite a bit of
money with our 2005 budget.
You are probably beginning to guess the end of this story. It is now
mid-November and I have gained back the 30 pounds I lost in 2004! I’m
sure many of you have experienced a similar situation, as I know this is not all
that uncommon. I can only begin to describe my frustration and annoyance
(I’m understating my anger stage a bit) to be back where I began.
But, look at all the money I saved!!! I attended about 4 or 5 meetings
during the year of 2005. The key was that I had lost my accountability by
not attending meetings and missing the dreaded ‘weigh-in’ each week. I
did follow the program off and on throughout the year and my weight bounced
around. But during some extremely stressful events, it finally went back
to the point where I had started almost 2 years ago.
I realized my biggest mistake during this experience was letting go of the
public accountability that goes along with the weigh-in. I might have hit
a plateau for several months, but at least it was remaining steady when I was
attending regular meetings. Needless to say, I have refocused my efforts
and commitment, and started attending weekly meetings again. I didn’t
save money in the long run, I just postponed when I would pay it!
This time of reflection caused me to realize how important accountability is any
of our successful endeavors. We are more apt to study for a test when we
know we are going to be graded. Scores from any sporting event push the
players to work harder to succeed. Sales goals and results that are
published in companies result in more successful results.
Think about how you can build in accountability for your goals, whether they be
financial or in other areas of your life. If you are working as a family
or a couple, you can be accountable to each other. If you are in a support
group, you have a source for accountability there. Be sure to reward your
successes – it’s too easy to beat ourselves up for not accomplishing our
goals, but we often forget to reward ourselves when we do succeed.
One thing I have definitely learned through this frustrating experience is that
“Accountability” strongly affects successful results. I am one to
learn from my mistakes and determine how I can use them to bring about more
successful results in all aspects of my life. By doing this, I haven’t
failed at anything – I’ve just learned what works and what doesn’t.
I’ve added a new learning experience to my tool kit for future successes!
* * *
Copyright
© 2005 by Karen Kuebler. All rights reserved.
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