I’ve been thinking a lot about accountability lately. I think this is because I have recently seen first-hand how much of a difference it can make.
Last year, I began working with an online fitness coach, and for 10 months he held me accountable on my fitness journey. While working with him, I lost 16 kg in weight and nine inches from my waist. I had lost some weight before I began working with him and knew I was capable of losing weight on my own, but accountability helped me stay consistent when motivation wasn’t there. For me, that has been the difference: not someone doing it for me but having someone there while I kept showing up and doing it for myself.
I knew all the things I needed to do to lose weight, but I struggled to keep doing them consistently, especially when life got in the way! Now, my coach didn’t lose that weight for me, nor did he do the workouts for me or make my meals, but knowing I had to check in with him each week motivated me to get the weekly tasks done. He was going to know if I was coming with excuses, and he was going to know whether I had followed through on what I’d committed to.
I think there’s a faith lesson in my journey. Sometimes, we make faith sound like something that happens entirely between us and God. We pray about something, ask God to help us, and then wait for ourselves to suddenly become more disciplined, more motivated, or more consistent. But the Bible talks so much about doing life with other people.
‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.’ (Proverbs 27:17)
‘Two are better than one … If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.’ (Ecclesiastes 4:9–10)
And in the Bible, James tells us to ‘confess to one another and pray for one another’. I’m sure you can agree that our personal motivation and determination can come and go. Some days (even some weeks!) I just don’t want to do ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ is). That’s where accountability can help, having that person reminding you what you said you were going to do when your flesh and your feelings start telling you that you don’t want to do it anymore.
I’ve prayed for change in so many areas of my life over the years, but I’ve learnt that sometimes the answer to that prayer requires action from me. It requires me to take a step of obedience in a certain area; it requires me to make choices. Prayer and action aren’t opposites, and neither are faith and discipline.
I’m no longer working with the coach, as we both came to the decision that our professional relationship had come to a natural end. I had learnt the practices and disciplines I needed to keep moving forward by myself. It isn’t about becoming dependent on another person; it’s about having someone walk alongside you for a season, encouraging you and helping you to keep going. This experience led me to start my own six-week accountability programme, Keep Showing Up. I’ve experienced the difference it makes when someone simply asks, ‘How are you getting on with what you said you were going to do?’
But accountability doesn’t have to be a coach or a programme; it might be a friend, your spouse, someone at church, or somebody you trust enough to be honest with when things haven’t gone to plan. One phrase I’ve come to use in my own journey is, ‘I prayed for change and then I showed up.’ I think that sums up what I’ve learnt about faith and accountability.
I absolutely believe in bringing things to God in prayer and trusting Him with the outcome, but I’ve also learnt that sometimes I have a part to play in the answer. Sometimes that means taking action, sometimes it means being disciplined when I don’t feel motivated, and sometimes it means allowing someone else to walk alongside me and hold me accountable. We still have to show up and do the work, but we don’t always have to do it alone.
Amber
Amber Gilbert was our Operations and Events Manager. Originally from Manchester, she is the author of ‘Running from Myself,’ a novel inspired by her life experiences, published in August 2024.