As I work through some transitions in my life, I decided to call upon an accountability partner. In graduate school years ago I asked another student to partner with me as we completed our scholarly projects. She was very different than me, another race, another religion, a completely different background. I don't quite remember how it came to be that we agreed to the arrangement. But it worked like a charm and enriched us both.
We met periodically at the university library. We shared briefly about what we had accomplished. We worked for an hour or so on our projects. Then we scheduled a time to meet again. The process was repeated until we were ready to graduate having completed our projects.
Fast forward to now when I've begun meeting weekly with a new accountability partner. We share our process and check in about forward motion. We are working on different goals. I believe having another person bear witness to your intentions is powerful and effective.
Today I met with another friend who shared her idea of permission slips. I talked about my rampant cell phone usage. I have two phones, both of which make me feel tethered. She wrote me a permission slip which says "Jenny Campagna has permission to ignore her phone until such time as it best serves her to use it." I didn't tell her what to write but it was perfect.
After our meeting I began thinking of coordinating more permission slips with my accountability partner. I can't wait to write one for her. Sometimes we are able to give ourselves permission. We decide it's the time to eat better, exercise more, get a new job, or work on some other aspect of self. Other times, the hall passes and permission slips of accountability partners are the catalysts we need.