The New AA

Throughout my journey with habit development, I have relied on many sources of accountability. Perhaps the most crucial source of accountability came from a cohort of friends we referred to as “Artists Accountability” or “The New AA.” We would meet weekly or bi-weekly to discuss our lives and the struggles we had been facing in our development as creatives. This group became a playground for developing our identities and establishing the habits and developments we wanted to see in ourselves.

The most crucial aspect of this group was the development of personal challenges. Every week we would meet to discuss the things we wanted to try or change. Perhaps to try a new routine or work to rid ourselves of a specific pattern or mindset. One by one, we would propose the goal we wanted to set for ourselves and why we thought it would be useful and meaningful to our lives. The rest of the group served to pick apart these challenges, point out flaws or potential roadblocks, all to better prepare and tailor the week ahead for the participant. With our challenges settled, we would develop a group goal for everyone to follow, a collective master goal we would all participate in together. Examples of various objectives, personal or collective, might be experimenting with routines like daily meditation, journaling, or abstaining from all television or media. Simple, measurable, and meaningful.

The challenges were tracked and updated in a running document. Week to week, we could see the progress, successes, and failures of everyone in the group. If we faltered or failed, we were honest with the group, and in turn, we could encourage each other and offer insight or propose a new angle. At the end of the week, we met once again to discuss and reflect. At the end of the meeting, we would grade our success on a scale of emojis from the classic smiling poop to a shining sun. The emoji branded next to our name until the following week’s results. I regret to say that I had the honor of wearing the poop emoji more than once.

By the time the group had dissolved, we had become masters of accountability and experimentation. We formed a deep bond and a genuine passion and care for how each of us fared. However, without the group, my source of accountability dwindled. Trying to hold onto the challenge tracking idea, I began to track six daily habits, including the meditation, exercise, and journaling practices I developed in the group.

What I didn’t expect was for this simple act of checking a box every day to turn into a source of accountability. As the daily checks began to grow, a larger and larger streak started to form in my practices. It became like a game. By the time I had checked off two continuous weeks, I had become obsessed with keeping this streak alive. I felt compelled to make sure every streak kept going up and up and up. First 30 days, then 50, then 100, then 150. I couldn’t bring myself to let the numbers I had worked so hard to go back to zero. Six months later and the checks are still going. No more poop emojis here.

Though they are just numbers, they indicate meaning in my practice. My streaks are a record of my consistency, proof of change, and progress. They represent my new identity in physical form. To watch them grow is to watch myself become more in tune with the person I want to be.

Investment

What I now realize is that both the tracking and the group contained the same source of accountability. We often think of accountability as a surface level exchange. Its sort of deal between friends or system. The more profound and perhaps more important aspect, however, is the investment.

The common link between the group and the tracking was that both required and insisted on a personal investment. The only difference between the two is that the group needed a two-way investment over the single point idea of streaks.

This investment cost is what makes accountability so unique and essential in habit formation. All other aspects of resolutions require a minimal personal cost. Even our fundamental purpose is easily dismissable on our worst days. However, when we take the time to stake our claims on an external relationship, whether that be a group, a tracker, or even a self-imposed punishment, we are forced to consider real and tangible effects outside of ourselves.

If we can find something worth investing in personally, we give ourselves accountable incentives to keep pursuing our goals. A habit or resolution requires a sunk-cost, the more personal and responsible we are for that payment, the more we will get out of our experience.

Moving Forward

As we continue to look forward to the new year and the better selves we want to create, let’s find something significant we can invest in. Perhaps we can find a group of friends we can help and support. Maybe we impose deadlines for progress with a reward and punishment system. Whatever it is, we need to remember that it is a cost we must be accountable for, and that will genuinely affect us on a personal level. Take the time to consider the things that inspire you or motivate you, use them to your advantage. Investing at the surface level guarantees nothing. Driving ourselves at the fundamental level requires a profoundly personal and meaningful investment.