Nothing will motivate you more than telling someone else what you want to accomplish. When you share your hopes and dreams, you are putting it out there that you are committed. You are yelling from the rooftops, “I can do this!” You are making yourself accountable.

If you’ve ever started a healthy eating plan and told everyone what you’re doing, you know what I’m talking about.

When others know your plans, they will help you stay on track and keep you from derailing or sabotaging yourself.

You are far less likely to eat that cookie if you know your best friend knows you’re not supposed to eat it. She will probably ask you how your progress is coming and how often you’ve been able to exercise. She might even join you on your plan to encourage you. Better yet, she might have already been able to lose weight and get healthy following the same plan. Just knowing she was successful gives you the courage to believe that you can be successful too.

In the same way, mentors–and additionally, colleagues who function as “accountability buddies”–provide accountability for following up on your goals. They give you a plan to execute and expect you to follow through on it. You know they will be asking if you have followed up on your action steps to meet your goals, so you are much more likely to complete them. It’s kind of like how you drive the speed limit when you see a cop on the side of the road. Knowing you are being held accountable keeps your actions in check.

I often share about my own mentors and mastermind groups and what the influence of a like-minded group of individuals has done for me. Those people inspire me, keep me accountable, and challenge me to new levels of achievement. I consistently choose to put skin in the game because it motivates me to take things much more seriously and take much bigger action (because I have paid handsomely!)

Could I do it on my own? Sure. Maybe. Would I be as successful? Not in a million years.

There is just something about having people who understand you rooting for you to succeed, celebrating with you when you do, and even encouraging you when you don’t make the mark. Why? Because they’ve been there too and can help pick you back up and get you moving again.

It’s why everyone who joins my Impact Academy gets their own accountability buddy. Having a support system keeps you alive and in the game. When you are accountable to others, you will do the necessary work because they are going to ask you about it. When you have friends and colleagues in the business who check in on you in a daily conference call, you know that you are not alone in the struggles and successes of being your own boss. When you invest in a coach to help you grow and get your personal life or your business to the next level, you put yourself out there both financially and emotionally and are plugged into the accountability to make sure you follow through.

To get out of your own way, you need accountability and positive pressure. When you work closely with someone in a structured way—a coach, a mentor—they hold you to a higher level of accountability.

Why is that good? Because, without accountability, the busy entrepreneur does not implement. And without implementation, there can’t be results. Period.