Accountability helps us actualize our ideal lives.

Sleeping in a hotel this summer wasn't my rock bottom. I think most people would think it would be but it wasn't.

I stayed in a hotel for a week this past summer as I bridged the time between crashing on couches and moving into my short-term rental at the Jersey Shore. It was something I chose intentionally. After a summer spent moving around looking for where I would land and call Home, the hotel was my last stop before landing back Home in New Jersey where I'm from and where I left in 2006.

My actual rock bottom hit months later, the week after Christmas, in a fancy carriage house. It was supposed to be Home but it ended up being another stop on my path and would serve to teach me invaluable lessons about myself and my resiliency and tenacity.

I possess seemingly unshakeable resiliency. It enables me to overcome things that would stop most people in their tracks. I often think to myself how many assumptions people make about me and my life based on what they see in social media because I selectively choose what to share and when and why, not because I'm trying to hide anything but because I try to be intentional about what will actually help and inspire people. If I'm going through challenges in my own life, I've become more mindful of what to share to bring more positivity or clarity or inspiration to peoples' lives. I try not to add more doom and gloom because there's plenty out there. If I'm going through something hard and I feel discouraged or afraid, I'd rather share less of the details and more of what I did AFTER THE FACT to help people through the same thing. Just complaining into the ether doesn't really add anything to anyone's life.

And I know when my book is published, it will have plenty of room for all the stories and details that I don't share on social media because it's all designed for very short attention spans. The wisdom I have to share deserves peoples' time and attention and they make more of that when they decide to buy a book.

It's the same way with accountability. People make time for what really matters to them OR what their habits have carved into their cerebral cortexes. Habits aren't always intentional or conscious choices and the way we start to become more aware of this is by taking action to unpack what we do and think and feel and say and WHY we do it all. That's when accountability serves us to help make different decisions to get different results.

If we want to lose weight, accountability helps us stick to the choices that will help us do that.

If we want to move to a new city, accountability helps us line up phone calls and make lists of action steps to get us closer to that goal.

If we want to start a business or find a new job, accountability helps us polish our resume to send out or call former or new clients for new business.

Accountability is the thing that takes us from where we ARE to where we WANT to be.

When I sat in the fancy carriage house this past December, I realized it wasn't the right place for me. I had made decisions that got me to that place and even though I was exhausted from a long string of months spent wandering around with no home, I knew I couldn't stay in a place that didn't feel right. I knew I had to keep going and summon more courage and strength to get to where HOME felt right and good in the ways I needed. I didn't know how I'd do it but I knew staying just wasn't an option.

Accountability that I've learned from so many years being a coach helped me push through the fear and doubt and shame and fatigue and get to the end goal I wanted. And it's better than I ever could have planned and I think to myself what my life would be like right now if I had given up or hadn't applied the level of accountability I did when it felt like I had absolutely nothing left.

I wouldn't feel this blissed out and grateful. I would have settled and would be sitting in something sub-optimal.

We aren't meant to live sub-optimal lives. We are meant to live IDEAL lives and with a little elbow grease and some help in our corner, we can make that reality. I'm here to prove it, against incredible odds.

And if I can do it, I know you can, too.