Do you excel at meeting external demands? 

Do you go to great lengths to meet your responsibilities where others are concerned?

Does the thought of letting someone down spur you into action?

On the other hand, do you find your own priorities often get relegated to the bottom of the pile - or sometimes don't get done at all? 

You’re not alone.

According to research carried out by author Gretchen Rubin, most of us are more motivated by commitments we make to others than commitments we make to ourselves.

Most of us need external accountability in order to feel motivated.

Even for activities that we want to do.

If this is true for you, how can you use this knowledge to fire up your motivation and make sure you get what's important to YOU done? 

What works best is to organise your life so that you have external accountability in every area that matters to you. Find practical ways to apply external accountability to your goals.  

For instance

• Want to exercise more? You could hire a personal trainer, buddy up with a friend and agree to text each other when you've done your daily exercise, or take a class with a teacher who’ll notice if you’re not there.  
   
• Want to lose weight? You could join an online nutrition and weight management programme, with the support of an online health coach and group forum to check in with each day.
   
• Want to read more? You could join a book group, or enrol in a literature course.
   
• Find you're 'busy busy busy' but never doing the things that will advance your career? Start by identifying how you can align your own goals with those of your boss, department, or company, and what tasks will meet those goals.
   
• Run your own business and want to stretch yourself more? You could gather a virtual team around you to act as sounding boards and inspiration partners, hire a coach or mentor, have students, or book clients in before you're ready to deliver.

The key is to identify what will push your external accountability buttons and use that to harness your natural motivation to get what's important to you done.

If you’d like to fire up your motivation and ensure you get the right things done for you, I’d love to help. Call me on 01733 252 642 or email me on sue@inthehotseat.co.uk to arrange a chat.