The clock is ticking on your goal.
If you are committed to a goal, giving yourself a clear deadline can help create some accountability for getting things done.
I was taking a little vacation and hanging out in South Lake Tahoe and I used Redbox for the first time. If you are on my email list, you know that I spent a week in Tahoe recovering from a back injury. Since I had to lie flat on my back for most of the week, part of my “recovery” consisted of watching lots of movies. While I was there, I watched FIVE movies in one week. At home I use Netflix. If I had rented those movies with Netflix, I would have taken five months to watch them all. That’s when I came to my Redbox versus Netflix epiphany.
I watched the Redbox movies right away because there was a deadline and a consequence for not meeting the deadline. With Redbox, the movies have to be returned the next day or you have to pay for another day. With Netflix, I can send it back three days or three months later and the only consequence is that it took me longer to watch the movie. (I currently have The Maltese Falcon and it has been sitting on the floor in front of my TV. for the past 4 weeks.)
Having a deadline can increase your self-accountability. Sometimes it’s not enough to want to watch the movie, you have to have a deadline in place in order to make it a priority. If you find yourself feeling disappointed or frustrated because there’s something that you’ve been wanting to do, but you keep putting it off – set a firm deadline and increase your self-accountability. Having a non-negotiable deadline will affect the decisions you make about how to use your time. It helps you to remember that this is something that you want to accomplish, and increase your commitment to your goal. Think about the difference between Redbox and Netflix and make the deadline something that might put a little pressure on you to get things done.
Need some more accountability? Share in the comments the goal you’re working on and when your deadline is – and I’ll even give you ideas on how to increase your accountability even more!