Working Towards Our Purpose

Welcome to working towards our purpose. This is episode

68, and today we are going to talk about

accountability buddies, especially in the age of

technology and AI. So before we get into the

episode, we are gonna check in with ourselves and see

how we're feeling. So take a moment and just

see how you're feeling. See if you're holding tension anywhere, you know, see what your

mood's like.

For me, I am still kind of going

through this, like, interesting phase. Not phase, but, like,

interesting thing that, like, I seem to be getting

really inspired and creative and, like,

lots of output. And then I'm also having,

like, bouncing between, like, a high level of. Higher level

of anxiety than I'm used to. So that's been interesting.

And trying to take that

gently. And instead of having

another cup of coffee today, I got some herbal tea. That's good for

stress and anxiety. So trying to. Trying to take it

gently. It's been. Take. It took me a little bit longer to get this episode

planned out today, but that's okay. Being

gentle and trying to treat myself well

and not harshly. So,

yeah, getting into today's episode, we're talking about accountability

buddies. And this is something that

I've always had. Not always, but I've had an accountability buddy

for a long time. And it hasn't always been the same person,

but it's something that kind of. I

noticed came about when I was, like, trying to

work my side business, and I had one before I left corporate, and I

had one through, like, through corporate, and then kind of had

a different person after corporate, and

maybe more than one now. But

I think it's important, and I think it's important to talk about

because especially today with, like,

AI and like, I can see somebody being like, well, what's the point? Like, I'll

just have AI do it. I'll have an AI accountability buddy. And

in my opinion, that it doesn't work that way. I don't think you can

do that. So. Yeah. So first off, what is an accountability

buddy? It's somebody that you go

through it with. It's somebody that, like, you

not only holds you accountable and you meet regularly.

Usually for me, it's been, like, at least weekly.

It's somebody who is going through something that you're going through,

whether it's like, you know, maybe you're both creative, maybe you're

both musicians, maybe you're both

starting a business or growing a YouTube channel. It's somebody

that's, like, trying to go through the same thing that you are. And

you have usually Similar values, similar, like,

ambition and goals and, like, you know, visions of what you want to do.

And this sort of helps you to inspire each other because

you're both, like, reaching for this thing in the future. So

for me, that's always been helpful to have somebody there

who's, like, who kind of gets it. Gets it gets what I'm

trying to do. And it's just really validating

and helpful to have somebody there with you

through the lows and the highs and just as a sort of

feedback and, like, things to bounce off of and just always, just always been

really helpful. For some reason. As I was saying that,

I thought about, like, communities growing up,

and my first episode of this podcast

was with Steve Roberts, and he

talked about being a skateboarder growing up and

how he found, like, real community as a. As a young

person in skateboarding. And that kind of is accountability,

because you're hanging out with people who like the same things you do. You

know, maybe you're interested in, like, learning a new trick or whatever, and

you have this person who's, like, going through it with you and understands you

at that sort of wherever you're at.

And I think the same thing is true for musicians and people playing in music

young and trying to make it as a band. And I was

kind of. I remember recording the episode and being sort of, like,

envious of that. Envious that he had that sort

of community when he was younger, that he could, like, be

himself around and grow into who he

wants to grow into. So I sort of see an

accountability buddy kind of like that. And it's a

person, somebody that you can feel yourself with and you can say your

crazy ideas and it's not, like, looked at weird,

and they kind of understand you. So

why are accountability buddies important now that we know what they are?

To me, we've kind of always been told,

like, or encouraged to kind of, like, do things

alone. You know, whether it's like, working on a school

project and you're in a group and, like,

nobody wants to do the work. So then, like, the teacher's like, well, then you

just do it, or you just figure out, like, well, you have to do it

all. And then you're. You're kind of hurt by that experience. Maybe it's in work

or something. You. And then you're like, you know what? I'm just gonna do it

myself. I can't rely on anybody. I can't trust anybody.

And I think I thought, like, that for a while, and

when I was building my side business I was

operating like that, and I thought that

I could do everything myself until I met

my first accountability buddy. And he basically asked me. He was like, hey, do you

wanna, like, do this together? Like, do you want to meet weekly?

And that sort of changed things for me because I never thought to do that.

So we met for, like three years

pretty much every single week. I don't know that we ever skipped a week.

And it was really helpful. It really helped me along

to talk things out to, you know,

not feel crazy for, like, wanting to leave my corporate job. And like,

also, like, now that I'm thinking back, the biggest thing was, like,

the harnessed anger. We were both really angry at our corporate jobs

and we didn't

understand, like, the environment

of a corporate situation. And the both of us just, like, wanted to

leave so bad. And that anger kind of fueled me to actually make that

change. So that was super helpful for me. And then once

I ended up actually leaving, it kind of didn't really serve me any

longer, and I sort of drifted away and

ended up finding some other accountability buddies that are. That are really

great and. Yeah, so

why can't AI replace this? Like, sure,

you can have an AI like, calendar and tells you you

meet weekly, checks in on you, whatever. I'm sure there's something you can do

physically to be checked in on and to be held

accountable. But I think that the most important thing of

accountability partner isn't just the

strategy or the accountability part of it. It's the being

seen and heard by somebody who understands you. And

this is something that AI cannot do. It can't

see you and understand you're going through a human experience because it's going

through its own human experience. Only a person can do that. So

I think the most important part of having the accountability buddy

is, like I said, being seen and heard. And,

you know, when you're going through it and you're. And you're down or you're,

you know, you're. You're discouraged. Having somebody there to,

like, talk that out with allows you to move through it faster.

It allows you to get rid of it, it allows you to speak it and

then move on to the next thing to be encouraged. And I

think that that's really something that we all

need. We all need to be surrounded by, you know, good

influences. And we're human. We want to make connections with

humans. And having an accountability partner is like

a forced connection. Every week, it's like, you put it in the calendar, we're meeting

every week, and we're going to talk and we're going to show up however we

are. So, yeah,

now that I'm thinking about it, I think for me, this podcast

is almost like a bit of an accountability buddy,

accountability partner. Because even though today this

took me a little bit longer to get through

the planning of this podcast and, you know,

maybe I didn't feel as prepared or whatever, you

know, negative thoughts can come in, but I want to show up

and I want to talk about what I feel like I should talk about today,

and here I am. So, you know, I guess thank you

to listening and being my accountability

buddy in that way. So. So, yeah,

get a little bit more back on track now. What

was the last thing that I wanted to say?

Yeah, so I think that's. That's pretty much what I wanted to say about, like,

why I think accountability. But buddies are important and especially,

you know, why we can't replace them with technology. Just, just the aspect

of being seen and heard and having a conversation.

I do think that it is

better to have, like an in person

accountability buddy, but I have done it over the phone before and that's

okay, too. But there's just something about, like, being in person with

somebody and kind of meeting somebody face to face

that helps you be more authentic, more vulnerable, more

honest with your struggles and to get

more human connection, to get more

feeling of you're not alone. So I think that's really

helpful. That was the last thing I kind of wanted to caveat before we get

into some steps of how do you find an accountability buddy?

Because maybe you don't have one and maybe you. You want

to find somebody like this. Maybe this sounds great, but you're like, well, what do

I do? I don't have anybody. Well, the first thing I

think that you can do, I kind of have three steps to finding an

accountability buddy. First one is to look where you are.

And maybe you do

have a friend who does have similar ambitions. Maybe it's like

not a close friend. Maybe it's like a friend of a friend or somebody that

you admire or noticed. Maybe it's

a, like a family member or maybe like a distant cousin or something.

Maybe there's somebody that like, you see and sort of admire.

And I think that that's part of it too is like, it's like

seeing somebody or finding somebody that almost you

are admiring and then you're kind of offering this to them

and because that's kind of how my first accountability partner was. Like, we were in

this class and he heard me talking and he

kind of came up to me afterwards and he was like, hey, I see that

you actually have a business here, and everybody else is kind of just talking about

one. Let's forget this next class. Let's just

go meet and talk about our actual businesses.

So I think that that's helpful

here. I've just sidetracked myself with that story.

But that's to say, to look where you are, because there might be somebody

where you are already that you can sort of ask

or propose it to, and even if they say no, you know, that's

okay. You can. You can find somebody else. But to kind of look where you

are. Another thing that comes to mind is, like, especially with the gym,

like, if you go to a gym, likely you'll

kind of see familiar faces. You usually go at, like, a similar time.

Perhaps somebody there, like, you know, maybe you notice somebody who's there every

single time you are and maybe never talk to them before, but you could

sort of go up to them, have a conversation with them, you know,

maybe propose a gym accountability buddy, if that's something you're looking for.

For me, like, there's. I have, like, a running route that I

do just run kind of in the same place every Tuesdays

or Monday, whatever, twice a week. And I

noticed this. There's this other guy that I usually pass by, and he's always really

kind and, like, waves to me and smiles. Um, like, that's.

That's a perfect example. Like, if I wanted, like, a running accountability

person, then. Then that's sort of maybe a good start. You

know, maybe I could try to find out how to talk to him when he's

not on a run or, you know, I guess tracking him down

wouldn't. Wouldn't be great, but I'm sure there's a way.

And then. So the second thing you could do

is to speak out loud, what your desires are

or what you're interested in, because I think you attract,

like, minds, and you can sort of. If you're talking about something that

you're passionate about or interested in, people will.

Who are also interested in those things will start to notice you.

That's why I confused myself with that story, because the story I just told about

my first accountability buddy actually pertains to this one.

So little off, but, you know, point being,

I was saying something that, like, I was doing. I was. I think we,

like, pulled up my website or something in this. In this class,

and we started, like, talking through,

like, marketing or something for my business. So because I,

like, I volunteered And I was like willing to talk about it.

We attracted each other and we would have never met if I kept quiet.

And you know, that's three years of an accountability partner that I wouldn't

have had if, if I didn't speak up. So,

so yeah, I think it's important to talk about

the things that you're into. And then the third thing would be to

go to events that you will find like minded people.

And again, same story. Like I went to this

event, it was like for business,

something to do with business and I was like starting my side business. So I

was like, all right, I'm going to go to this free class, they're going to

talk about business in some way. And

because I went to that event, I found my accountability partner

who was like minded. And I think like putting yourself out

there a little bit and going to go take a class

or to go do something that you're interested in that maybe you wouldn't

normally, or maybe it's a networking event or a

get together, anything really, like even

a show or a concert, you can meet people that

you wouldn't have met otherwise. But you know that you're going to align

on similar values based on the type of event that

you're going to. So I think that that could be really helpful.

And yeah, lastly, I

also want to say too that like I do think it is important to

like specify the accountability buddy, like to have it in

a certain area. Like, like I mentioned to you before, like

if you want like somebody to keep you accountable at the gym, then

like that's a specific thing. Or if it's like a business as another specific thing.

I think it kind of does have to have some

specificity to it as far as like niching

or maybe that's a bad word. But

you know, if it's like for a business thing then you want to find somebody

who's like also trying to build a business. Or like for me, if I'm thinking

about like if I should, if I should think

of like where can I get an accountability buddy now that I would need,

it would be like a YouTube creator. Like, like if I

found somebody who was doing YouTube and

you know, maybe they did it for longer than me or whatever, they're trying

to build a YouTube channel. I don't really have any YouTube friends.

So because I'm trying to build my YouTube channel and I want to

grow that. If I had other people who were doing YouTube

then I would have somebody to like bounce ideas off of or you

know, work back and forth with. And if we met weekly, you know, there's

something that is helpful to us both

trying to do the same thing. You know, if I learn something on a

video, then I can like bring that to that person and they can tell me

what they learned that maybe I didn't pick up. And it just helps

you sort of get along further and make more progress

with. With the same amount of time. So,

yeah, I do think that that's, that's important now that I'm thinking

about, like, how I could do that because, you know, trying to, trying to like,

not just say advice, but actually, like, what would that look like

for me? I think it would have to be an online community. So maybe that's

the fourth thing. Maybe you can find maybe an online community

of people who are doing the same thing as you. And maybe

I guess if I were to think about YouTube, I would want to see if

there's any. I'm sure there's YouTube

summits and events or

weekend sort of things where people go and you talk about

all YouTube stuff like Expo, you know, that that's not a

thing. Um, if I went to one of those things, likely I would run

into somebody who had similar passions and,

you know, it might spark a sort of friendship that leads

to something else and leads to like an accountability sort of

friendship. So, yeah, if I were to do it about, about

YouTube, that's kind of how I would do it. Like, live thinking on my feet.

That's how I would find a, a YouTube approach. Accountability buddy.

So, yeah. And then lastly, I kind of just want to close with like,

I think it is important that, like, you're making sure that you match values

and then you can have honest and open communication with this person

because that's going to lead to the growth, like being

able to be honest with your feelings. Like, hey, I'm really like,

down today. I feel like I should just give it up. Being able to have

those sorts of conversations with somebody is where progress will be

made. So you need to make sure that

you feel like it's an open space and you can sort of

voice your feelings because

that's, to me important when we're trying to make changes and we're trying to build

things. So I did want to caveat that. And then

also lastly, sometimes you do need to make a change. Sometimes

an accountability buddy that served you for a while, you know,

you can be appreciative for and you can still be grateful for

that time, but maybe they don't serve you anymore and maybe you

don't serve each other anymore is more likely. And

sometimes you need to make a change and that's okay too. So,

yeah, I encourage you to, if you don't have, maybe

try to find an accountability buddy for a project that you're working on or

maybe if you want to do something more creative, find a

creativity accountability buddy. And yeah, let me know in the comments

if you, if you have an accountability buddy and, and tell

me like your, your origin story, how you met, because I feel like that's always

important and it's always kind of a cool story. I think. So.

So, yeah, leave a comment about, about your YouTube.

No, sorry. Leave a comment about your accountability buddy,

orange origin story. Wow. I haven't really trouble speaking

here. All right, I think that's enough for me today.

One last thing that I wanted to bring up that I just thought of today.

I want to do sort of a.

What's the word? Like a

giveaway. That's the word. Wow. I'm really struggling with my words. So I've got a

bunch of these working towards our purpose stickers in the mail

and I don't know what to do with them.

So if you want one of these stickers, send me a

message on Instagram on working towards a purpose.

If you don't follow me already, follow me and send me a message and

tell me an address where you want me to send this sticker and I'll send

you a couple of these things. The only thing I ask is if you follow

me on YouTube and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

So, yeah, maybe send me a screenshot of you subscribe to my YouTube channel

and, and then send me a message on Instagram and I will send you a

couple stickers if you're interested. So thanks for

listening. Thanks for getting through it today with me. I feel like I was a

little brain fogged, but hopefully we got some good points and hopefully it

was helpful and I will see you on another episode

real soon. Thank you.