I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about the new direction his life had suddenly moved in. After 8 years of pouring his soul into his workplace, he had just become unemployed, and understandably reviewing all of his options. He also owned a small marketing business, that due to the workload of his regular job, he had let languish on the side.

We were also discussing some awesome opportunities that could be coming across my path. He subtly put on his marketing hat and was giving me some rather awesome advice for me to move things in a bigger direction with my other business.

But then I thought … why isn’t he doing that for himself?

We can all be so confident when helping others. Most of us enjoy supporting and helping our friends, colleagues and clients grow and prosper. And for the most part, we’re all terrible at following our own advice when it come to ourselves.

So I threw his words back at him … when are you going to take that first step towards the goals we had discussed?

January is a month that most of take for goal setting, resolutions, business planning … whichever term you want to use. And like the folks who buy a gym membership in early January, we’re floundering and not following through by February. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of blog posts written this month on how to make and follow through on your goals, but there is one thing that has always worked for me.

Accountability.

I’ve had accountability partners and deadlines, and frankly both of those keep me on track because I’ve made myself responsible to answer to someone other than myself. So if you’re struggling to meet your goals or resolutions set a deadline with someone else, or find an accountability partner. Because while we don’t realize we’re letting ourselves down by not following our own advice, we don’t like to let someone else down.