The night before I moved out of my college apartment, my roommate and I decided to write a song. The moment we agreed to this, my roommate stood up, walked out of the apartment, and went to visit our next-door-neighbors.
“Hey, Josh and I are going to spend all night writing music,” he said. He was met by some cheering, a few applause, and a chorus of “Can’t wait to hear what you come up with.”
I asked him, “What’d you do that for?”
“Because,” he replied. “Tomorrow, they’ll ask us about it.”
When engaging in a pursuit, be it writing music with your roommate, launching a business, or starting a new diet, it’s important to tell other people. Other people hold us accountable.
When asked about your pursuit, it doesn’t feel good to say, “Oh, yeah. I didn’t wind up doing it. It was too hard. I gave up.”
It’s important we put ourselves on the hook. When accountable to an audience, we’re forced to sit down and do the work.
joshua chamberlain 