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To Create a Healthy Habit, Find an Accountability Buddy
I want to talk about something that has made it significantly easier for me to feel motivated to get up on those cold dark mornings.
It has also driven most of my success with daily habits.
Having an accountability partner.
Every morning, I wake up and text my good friend Ashley Richmond two simple letters. ‘GM’ (good morning) and then the time I woke up. She does the same thing back. Just two letters are enough to spark that accountability and drive to get up out of my warm bed in the morning.
We do better with our goals and our habits when we have either a partner or group accountability.
“In my years of working with thousands of people, there’s one thing that drives accountability more than anything else: If you want to keep people doing a behavior, get a buddy.” — Dr. Tim Church, a well-known exercise expert
A 2018 North Carolina State University study of 704 people enrolled in a 15-week online weight-loss program found that participants with buddies lost more weight and waist inches than those who took the course without buddy support.