You Think You Need Accountability.
“Accountability” is often the wrong fix. On the difference between outsourcing the discipline lever and changing what’s actually going on underneath.
When discipline stops working, the first thing most people reach for is accountability. A partner. A coach. A daily check-in. Someone who’s going to keep me honest.
Sometimes it helps. More often, it’s a way to outsource the discipline lever to someone else without changing the thing that was actually blocking the work.
If you can’t do the thing without external pressure, the question isn’t how to import more external pressure. It’s what’s happening internally when you sit down to start. Usually some version of the same pattern — the work has become evidence about you, and the easiest way to avoid being evaluated is to not begin. Accountability that ignores this just adds a new judge.