I came across this on another blog and just had to share it here. I feel totally renewed and energized after watching. Enjoy!

There was an interesting comment made on a post over at Divine Purpose Unleashed last night. It got me thinking about accountability partners and the role they play in productivity.

In the original post which talked about making a commitment to living your purpose this year, CK Reyes asked us to find someone to support us and hold us accountable.
One of the commenters said that she didn’t agree with the concept of an accountability partner because it was like giving your personal power away.

Now, I have serious issues with giving my power away that stem from my background as a victim of abuse. I’ve been working for years to reclaim my own power and get my life back. So the thought that I might be giving it all away again was pretty disturbing, to say the least.

I ended up chewing on this for most of the day today, trying to figure out just how I feel about the relationship I have with my accountability partner, and whether it’s an empowering or disempowering relationship. Thinking about the whole issue of accountability and responsibility made me realize that for me, being accountable to someone in this way isn’t giving my power away, it’s empowering me to be better at what being who I am and doing what I do.

It’s like knowing that there is someone there who I can tell what I got done in a day and who will encourage me to do more is really freeing. By the same token I know that if I’m trying to do too much she won’t hesitate to tell me to slow down a bit either. I know that I work better to a deadline than I do when I just have a list of stuff to do. And even though I still set my deadlines for myself, just knowing that there’s someone else who knows that deadline is enough for me.

The fact that it’s MY choice to share my goals and deadlines and to ask for support and encouragement is what makes the difference. In recognizing that I have issues with procrastination and focus and asking for help to deal with those, I would classify an accountability partnership the same as I would classify a relationship with a coach or trainer — as someone who is there at my request to encourage me to meet my goals and to get better at what I do, not to usurp my power and impose their own opinions and deadlines on me.

I love the relationship I have with my accountability partner. We keep each other focused, and I think we’re both more productive for it. Maybe in light of that, a better term for it would be a productivity partnership. What do you think?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please feel free to leave them in the comments or share them with me on twitter.

Losing your motivation or inspiration is never a fun experience. It’s just something that happens to all of us at least once in our lives. The trick to getting past it is to find something that will help you to get moving again. The last thing you want to do is allow yourself to get stuck in an extended period of the blahs.

One of the things I’m most thankful for is that even though I seem to manage to get myself uninspired more than is probably good for me, it doesn’t usually take me long to find my way back. I just use one of these simple ideas to help me get my inspiration flowing again:

1. Go for a walk, or just sit outside and enjoy nature for awhile. Whenever I’ve feeling really uninspired I head for the river to sit on my favorite rock and just soak up the sun and the fresh air.

2. Listen to music. Turn on the radio or fire up your ipod and listen to your favorite tunes. Get up and dance if the music calls to you. Moving your body to the bead of a great song is an excellent way to shake the cobwebs off your inspiration and get you ready to create again.

3. Draw, paint, or color something. Even if you’re not the world’s greatest artist, just the act of creating something with color can help to release whatever is blocking you. One of my favorite ways to get inspired again is to fire up photoshop and mess around creating patterns and graphics out of old photos.

4. Read something inspirational, such as a biography or a self-help book. Finding out how others have handled their loss of inspiration can do two things for you — reassure you that you’re not alone, and give you more ideas of how to jumpstart your own inspiration.

5. Have a pep talk with yourself. Look in the mirror and talk to yourself. Give yourself some encouragement and remind yourself of all the things you’ve accomplished so far in your life.