How to Hold Myself Accountable For Goals
Feb 18, 2026Summary
Have you ever set a goal to better yourself, only to have a sudden crisis—like a sick family member or a flooded basement—pull the rug out from under you? Most of us abandon our goals the moment things get difficult because we think accountability means being perfect. But real growth happens in the pivot. In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson joins Wendi Christensen and Kari Anjewierden to answer the high-stakes question: How to hold myself accountable when life falls apart.
We move from the "all or nothing" trap to a resilient, mission-driven mindset. Kari shares the importance of "Pre-Planning for Distractions"—anticipating the adversary's attacks so they lose their power to stop you. Wendi opens up about a literal flood in her home and how giving herself permission to eat sushi and watch TV instead of cleaning was actually an act of spiritual strength, not failure. We also explore the Daniel Strategy, showing how Daniel and his friends stayed true to their mission in a foreign land by leaning on team accountability. If you are ready to stop measuring your "Gap" (failures) and start celebrating your "Gain" (progress), this episode will give you the crisis emergency kit you need.
Episode Takeaways
- Pre-Plan for the Adversary: Distractions are guaranteed. If you plan for them (e.g., "If I can't find my shoes, I will do this instead"), they lose their power to derail you. Expect the mental chatter and have a rebuttal ready.
- The Sunday Report: Accountability isn't just about checking a box; it's about reporting to God. Tamara shares how a weekly "Sunday Report" helps her celebrate the 4 days she showed up rather than shaming herself for the 1 day she missed.
- The Flood Pivot: Wendi's story of her home flooding teaches us that sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is pause, eat cake, and rest. Resilience isn't about pushing through trauma; it's about pivoting with grace.
- The Daniel Strategy: Daniel didn't stand alone; he had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Accountability is a team sport. When you are in a "foreign land" (a hard season), you need friends who share your values to help you stand firm.
Resources
Need a "Crisis Emergency Kit" for your mindset? Download our FREE Guide to Goal Setting. It features the "Don't Quit Emergency Kit" to help you pivot without giving up. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout
Need a team like Daniel had? Join our Accountability Group! https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/join-now
Reflection Questions
- What is one distraction the adversary usually uses to stop you? (e.g., "I can't find my shoes," "I'm too tired"). What is your pre-planned response?
- Do you measure the "Gap" (what you didn't do) or the "Gain" (what you did do)? How would your week look different if you celebrated the "Gain"?
- Have you ever experienced a "flood" (crisis) where you tried to push through instead of pivot? How can you show yourself grace next time?
- Who are your "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego"? Do you have a team holding you up, or are you trying to stand alone?
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:00.480 - 00:01:58.060
Have you ever set a goal to better yourself only to have a sudden crisis like sick family or flooded basement that just kind of pulls the carpet out from under you? Most of us abandon our goals the moment things get difficult because we think accountability means being perfect.
But real growth happens in the pivot. Today we're answering the high stakes question how to hold myself accountable for my goals.
And by the end of today's episode, you'll have a crisis emergency kit for your mindset and understand how to use the Daniel strategy to stay true to your mission when the world invites you to give up. We're solving the all or nothing trap by showing you how to measure your gain, not your gap. Stay tuned.
Ordinary Women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes. The Arise Women of God Podcast hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God Podcast.
I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today is Wendi Christensen, my co founder of Women warriors of Light, and Kari Anjewierden from our advisory board. And we're moving from mental chatter to mission driven today. First, we're going to talk about pre planning for the adversary's distractions.
Second, we'll discuss the Sunday report and why reporting your progress to God changes your success rate. Third, when Wendy is going to share a raw story about a flood in her home and how she had to pivot her goals to survive the week.
And finally, we'll look at the story of Daniel and his three friends to see why accountability is a team sport.
But first, Kari is going to kick us off by sharing the importance of pre planning so that when the adversary attacks, you're not surprised or taken off guard.
Kari Anjewierden
00:01:58.140 - 00:03:05.850
Anytime that I try to set a goal to better myself, that's where the adversary comes in. And if I will go through any of the things that could go wrong, like I want to walk more right, oh, I can't find my shoes.
Or there could be any number of things that, that could stop me, distract me, keep me from doing what I'm doing, somebody calls right at that moment or whatever.
If I have already planned through some of those scenarios, if makes it very easy to keep with what I'm doing because I already know what I'm going to do in that circumstance.
So that's one of the things that, that I try to do, but also to expect that mental chatter that it's going to come and it's going to make it very hard for me. I'm a night owl, so getting up early is hard for me. So I have to change My mindset the night before as I'm going to sleep. I'm a morning person.
I'm a morning person. So that when that alarm goes off at 6, it's easier for me to get up and to do the things that I want to do.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:03:06.730 - 00:05:32.700
Ladies expect that mental chatter. If you know the distractions are coming, they lose their power to stop you.
But once you've cleared the mental space, you need a place to record your progress. For me, that means a weekly check in with God. It's so much of a mental battle, isn't it? I know.
That's one of the things that I think is so important is setting the goal right, writing it down so you can see it. We talked a little bit about the smart goals in the last episode, but then the in the fulfillment and holding yourself accountable.
When am I going to report back to myself or for me, I like to report back to God. And it's usually about once a week where I set goals for the whole next week.
So that either happens on a Sunday or a Monday, just depending upon the busyness of the weekend and all that stuff. But that helps me keeping a journal of, here's the goals I set this week. How did I do where? What were my wins? Don't just focus on the losses.
You can also focus on the gain and not the gap. So I'm focusing on where did I show up? What did I do? Well, I had a goal to work out five days this week. I only made it to four. Am I a total failure?
No. Celebrate those four. Right? So that's, that's important.
Those are some of the principles, writing it down, putting it in a place where you can see it, visualizing yourself at the end of that road and how that will feel and what that will look like. I think that's another big tip is I love being able to do that because then I can kind of. It pulls me forward. Like that is what I'm going for.
And putting pictures up. I even have a vision board right here to my left, a picture of what that outcome looks like.
And AI is really great at helping you create pictures now. So. Because sometimes an image is worth a thousand words and that helps pull me forward. Like focus on the gain.
God isn't looking at the gap of where you failed. He's looking at the effort of where you showed up. And as your seasons of life change, your accountability tools might need to change too.
Wendi is now going to share how she has found that tweaking this approach is actually a sign of growth. And not failure.
Wendi Christensen
00:05:32.940 - 00:06:32.420
It's okay if I need to tweak things. Maybe I try something and it doesn't work for me. Like, maybe I have it visually there and it doesn't do anything for me.
Maybe it's a creating a checklist and that checklist is there or for a little bit. I had a goal to change my mindset around money. I was really stuck in a scarcity mindset instead of an abundant mindset.
And so I found tons of quotes around abundance, like money abundance. And I put them in my closet where I got ready every day.
And every day I would read those and just try to go through this visualization and this mantra. And it was a goal to, like, change my mindset around it. And it really did help. It really helped shift my mindset.
So that was something that worked that year. I'm not doing that this year because that's not what I need this year.
But it's okay to switch it up and change it and find what works for you in the moment and in the season of your life. So figure out what works for you. And sometimes that's trial and error. Important part is don't give up. Just keep trying.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:06:32.820 - 00:06:48.420
Trial and error is just part of the refinement process. But sometimes life doesn't just give you a trial. It gives you a literal flood.
Wendi is now going to share a personal experience where her entire plan for the week was washed away.
Wendi Christensen
00:06:48.940 - 00:08:24.840
I had an experience this week. My home flooded, and it's been quite overwhelming. And I was actually gone and out of town when it happened.
So I came home and it was more emotional than I thought to come home to this big, huge disaster in my home. And I had every intention when I got home to just start boxing things and organizing things and cleaning things.
And I didn't realize emotionally I couldn't handle it at the time. And so I decided to do what I needed to do first.
I had a couple things with my kids I had to do and get them ready and get them sent out the door with their activities. And as I went to go clean and organize and do stuff, I realized emotionally, I'm not there. And so I went and got dinner.
I went out and I grabbed like, sushi from the grocery store and I bought myself cake to share with my husband. And I came home and I watched some television, a couple episodes of my favorite show, and ate.
And I thought, I'll get there first thing in the morning. And I did. The next day I woke up and I was refreshed. I Had. Had. I had spent some time helping me emotionally to adjust and to reset my goal.
And I was able to get up and get a lot accomplished the next day, and I was fine with that.
So sometimes we just need to shift and pivot for ourselves and just listen to your body, listen to what you can do and shift and pivot where you need to and keep moving forward.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:08:25.400 - 00:08:47.610
That is the spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind. When you didn't give up on your goal, just respected your own capacity. That resilience is exactly what we see in the life of Daniel.
He held himself accountable to God's standards even when he was captive in a foreign land. Kari is going to share a little bit of what she learned from this story.
Kari Anjewierden
00:08:47.930 - 00:09:27.480
Daniel is presented with all this amazing food stuff that he probably wasn't used to eating, but probably delicacies that he would have loved to have.
But he stuck with what he knew worked for him and what kept him in line with God and that was sticking to a strict regimen of what he did eat or didn't eat. And I love that he's willing to push the boundary there is be able to just say, let me try this out and if it doesn't work, I'll do it your way. But.
But let me try it this way first and see what happens.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:28.200 - 00:09:36.760
That you don't have to do it the way everybody else does it, but you can do it the way that God inspires you to do it. It's a beautiful way.
Kari Anjewierden
00:09:36.920 - 00:10:01.960
Yeah, right. And being accountable to himself because he was in a setting where it would have been okay for him to stray from what he had set for himself.
But instead he had made a pact with himself, a promise with himself to stay fit the way that God had told him to. And he knew God was still there in it. Right. He knew he was going to have to report to God.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:10:02.520 - 00:11:22.470
And he also had accountability partners in that, you know, the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that they were in that with him as well. And so they could stand together and there is strength in numbers.
And that's another amazing hack with setting goals and holding yourself accountable is having people who are of the same level mind and they're working on the same thing despite being in a challenging situation because they were being held captive. You know, so good things can come from hard situations. We learn a lot about ourselves just like Daniel did.
Accountability is not a whip to beat yourself with.
It's a yoke to share with your savior and your tribe whether you're pivoting after a flood or standing firm like Daniel, remember that your progress is the process of becoming. If you would like an emergency crisis kit and to start measuring the gain and not the gap, go download our free A Guide to Goal Setting.
It also features the Don't Quit Emergency Kit page. And if you need your own Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to stand with you, join our accountability group Community. The links are in the description.
All right, ladies, go find your win today and until next time. May you arise. Do it God's way, God strong.
