Who’s Keeping Track?

In school your teachers assigned you grades.  At work the boss man monitors your output. Tell me, who’s tracking your financial performance?

It’s pretty popular for financial bloggers to publicly track their net worth.  And that’s great.

Why do they do it?  While I cannot know their intentions for sure, I’m betting they aren’t just being smug (though I would feel pretty smug if I were some of them).  Public accountability works.  

Since I’ve started working from home, I’ve realized that no one, aside from my mother, really cares if I’m up before 8 o’clock.  

Adulthood carries much responsibility; the unpleasant kind that too often seems to go unrewarded.  

Why do you brush your teeth every day?   Aside from the distinctly unpleasant fuzzy feeling, people tend to have a bad reaction towards smelly breath.  

Peer pressure can be a good thing.  For one thing, it can motivate you to ward off cavities. For another, it can keep you from giving up on a goal.

Humorous Anecdote (to prove my point):

I committed to running my first 5k with Husband on our Air Force base.  For those of you that don’t know, the U.S. Military requires their employees to stay in freakishly good shape (lucky me :)).  

I workout pretty regularly, so I thought to myself, “This should be a piece of cake.  I wonder if there will be a 5k cake.  That would be awesome.”

I finished in 30 minutes (respectable), but second to last behind all those freaks (with the safety car following close behind).  

If no one had been expecting me at the finish line, I might have ducked into our house (on the route) and crawled back into bed.  5k’s start way too early anyways.  

Perhaps the biggest motivator was that car following me.  I’d be danged if I was going to let that lazy driver see me give up.  

Call it “pride” or call it “Mike,” I really don’t care what you call it, but it kept me going.

You may not have a blog to announce your progress to the world.  Heck, I have a blog and I don’t even announce my progress to the world.  The world is much too nosey for my taste. But we do share our big goals with close friends and family.

The lame responsibilities we assume in adulthood somehow seem less lame when we get a little recognition. 

Go on and share your goals with someone; make sure that you are expected at the finish line.  While you’re at it, hire a car to chase you, it’s quite thrilling.