Does Holding Yourself Accountable Online Even Work?

I don’t know anymore.

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Last month, I wrote an article titled “Hold my Coffee, Internet,” and as the title suggests, you might as well splash that coffee on me now.

The article recommended sticking to a strict routine for long-term goals. The author risked her 280 followers and over 40 articles to stay accountable.She promised to delete her Medium account if she didn’t follow through, and she was confident she would.

She also stood by her word by taking a 2-week hiatus where she indulged in a war with herself, but guess what?

“A loser with confidence is more dangerous than a winner with no self-esteem.” — Guess which I am?

And now she’s back, and I know I deserve that coffee splash, but hear me out, okay?Online accountability does not work the way I thought it would.As much as I love everyone who stops by my articles and reads the first line, and those who make it to the end.At the end of the day, when I hit rock bottom, I don’t think I’d want to show up to the platform and type out a version of me that’s supposedly “doing great” and “sticking to the plan.”

I would never fool my precious readers.

According to ChatGPT, there are 6 simple steps to holding yourself accountable, and the order goes like this: Recognition, Ownership, Apology and Amends, Learning and Growth, Consistency, and Acceptance of Consequences.The first 4 were a piece of cake for me. The 5th is hell.So, after too many motivational videos later, I wrote it out here for my understanding.I reckon that I fail to be consistent due to the following reasons:

1. My attention span is easily compromised: I just can’t be bothered with something for more than a few hours.
2. Faking deadlines does not work for me because I know they’re fake.
3. The infamous scenario of me following a routine for 3 days straight and the slightest disruption causes me to relapse into my comfort zone.

If you’re struggling with any of the same reasons, let’s deal with this together.

Here’s my latest strategy called “Monk Mode 101”. Kidding, of course, it’s easier for me to go into monkey mode 101 than that.

It is simple: Isolation of the Intention.Here’s how it works:For Eg: If I need to stick to a workout routine for five days. I’ll sleep and wake up at my usual time and fit in a 25-minute workout whenever I can.

I’ll establish the habit before setting a time so it’s not dependent on anything specific.

Otherwise, if I always worked out at 7 a.m. and accidentally overslept a day, I might skip my workout and fall back into my old routine.Simply put, the goal I am setting no longer needs to depend on any particulars.That way, it gives me increased willpower.Has this been tested before? By me? Yes.I’ve been able to keep up with my religious litanies by this method for the past week, and I think it’s wonderful how simple the brain is to be fooled.Nike was right when it said Just Do It.

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