How I Found an Accountability Partner!

In the Dec 2017 #tsql2sday blog chain, the author asked about learning goals (my response is here). I really loved reading all of the other responses! For me, coming up with goals isn't the hard part, but following through on all of them is. I start strong, and fizzle out...

When reading Doug Purnell's response (here is his post), he specifically mentions wanting to find others to help keep him accountable. I took the quiz he mentioned, and no surprise to me, I am also an Obliger. That gave me a great idea: I wrote Doug an email and asked if he wanted to work together to help each other! I will admit, I was a little nervous about writing a virtual stranger, but it helped that I had read his blog before and had seen his name while in the #sqlskinny twitter group a couple of years ago. When I emailed him, I started out with saying "I know we dont know each other, but...". :) I explained how I had heard his name, but then just asked straight out if he wanted to work with a stranger.

Luckily he said yes! We decided to meet every other week to help keep each other accountable for the goals we have set for the year. On top of that, we also decided to bring in someone once a quarter to help keep us even more accountable too. There are many people in the community who are open to "mentoring" others if they have the time. We chose 4 people, one for each quarter, so that each person is only having to commit to a 1 hour meeting, once. That will help us not only be accountable to each other, but also to someone else. So far, 3 of them have said yes, and I am anxiously awaiting the response from the last.

I wanted to write this blog post because early in my career when I wondered how to find a mentor, I thought there was a way they would find me, or maybe there was a way to sign up somewhere and it was arranged, etc. In reality, many times you just reach out to someone and ask for what you want. In addition to that, you can check out your existing work relationships. In looking back over the last 20 years, I realize I have had some mentors along the way, I just didnt "label" it with that term specifically. In the #tsql2sday blog chain for Nov 2017, the topic was who made a difference in your life/career. I listed 3 people and none of them were someone I have thought of with the term mentor, but it does actually fit.

I have been enjoying having Doug as an accountability partner. I almost didnt get a chance to write and post a blog recently (one of my goals is to blog twice a month), but was very excited to be able to email him when I finally got it done in time! I will make sure to post from time to time as things progress to give an update on how things are working out. Make sure to follow Doug on his blog too: sqlnikon.com