A dear friend and I decided to run together on one of the recent mornings while I was in town. While I was heading to bed the previous night, I proposed to her we start at 6.50am and I put my phone to do not disturb.

At 6.30 am the following morning, I received a message from her saying if we don’t leave to run before 6.50am, she might be late for an appointment 2 hours later. I opened the message and I suspected she wanted to cancel. I responded with “I am leaving from my flat right away and I will meet her in 10 mins in front of her door. I also hinted that I will be without my phone. Therefore, I won’t be reachable until I get to the meeting point ”. My phone died and the next time we saw was 6.42am.

We went running for circa half hour and we shared how good we both feel.

After our run at 7.15am, my friend said she almost cancelled because it would have been more comfortable to sleep a little longer. But she couldn’t cancel because 1) I said “I was on my way” 2) She would have looked bad if she’d cancelled.

By embarking on a journey with others, we tend to be more accountable. Group or social pressure is deeply embedded is the human social system. We will rather look good in the face of others than look bad. So when someone else is with us in an activity, we tend to make more responsible decisions.

Social pressure is why my friend didn’t cancel that morning. That’s why we went running.

This tactic is helpful in forming new habits required to achieve any goal in life. When you want to do more sport or accomplish a life goal, find someone with similar interest as your accountability buddy. You can hold each other responsible for the actions required to reach that goal.