BANZA August 2016 | Page 100

Find the person, state the purpose! For an accountability partnership to work, you need to find someone with common goals as well as a personality that compliments yours. Once you have found the person, you need to state the purpose. With this, be as specific as possible and clearly define the roles that you would like the other person to play in achieving your goals. Some people only need someone there cheering them on, and others need someone who will drag them out of bed at 6 am and take a ‘hard line’ with them. If this isn’t established from the get-go, it can lead to a failed partnership. Be sure to be clear with the roles and stick to them! BANZA Agree on the consequences and ‘penalties’ of breaking the agreement. This can be done in a fun way, especially with things like healthy eating and exercise. If one of you has one block of chocolate too many, let it equate to 10 push-ups the next day at the gym or even an extra helping of salad instead of bread at dinner. These can be structured in levels of severity; for instance, missing an entire workout should have a higher penalty than running fewer kilometres than you were meant to.