Friday morning I went out for a 40-minute run with a friend. Nice weather, easy Zone 2 pace, chatting away.
Then her calf started playing up, so she sensibly headed home. I kept going.
Ten minutes from home, the heavens opened. Proper, soaking rain. And as I came around the corner I realised I had options. I could cut the run short. Find some cover. Or just keep going.
I kept going.
Now, finishing ten minutes of a run in the rain is hardly an impressive feat. But it got me thinking about why, on some days, we do exactly what we said we were going to do, while on others, we find a perfectly reasonable excuse not to.
Because most of the time, knowing what to do isn’t our problem.
Actually following through is.
After twenty years of watching capable people set brilliant intentions and then quietly let them slide, I’ve worked out why.
We follow through when three things are true:
We’ve paid for it
We’ve set a clear standard
Someone is holding us to it.
I call it the Accountability Law.
And there’s real behavioural science under every part of it.
Why we don't follow through
Start with the enemy.
Parkinson’s Law says work expands to fill the time available. Give yourself a week to write the report and it takes a week. Give yourself an afternoon and somehow it still gets done.
The trouble with most personal goals – get fit, post on LinkedIn, finally sort the marketing – is that there’s no deadline and no one waiting.
So the task expands to fill all the time available, which is the rest of your life.
“I’ll get to it” quietly becomes “never”.
Not because you’re lazy. Because nothing is forcing the moment.
We lift our game when someone is watching
There’s a name for the second piece.
In the 1920s and 30s, researchers at a factory called Hawthorne Works noticed workers’ productivity improved simply because they were being observed. It’s been called the Hawthorne effect ever since.
The lesson is a little uncomfortable but very useful: we behave differently when someone is watching.
Left alone, the post doesn’t get written.
Knowing you’ve got a call on Thursday where someone will ask, “Did you post this week?” – suddenly it gets written on Wednesday night.
Being observed changes what we do.
We honour what we say out loud
The third piece comes from Robert Cialdini’s work on influence: commitment and consistency.
Once we commit to something – especially out loud, in front of other people – we feel a strong pull to act in line with it.
A goal in your head is easy to renegotiate at 6am.
A goal you’ve said to someone else, "Yes Anita, I'll meet you at 6am" sets a standard and expectation. Plus, it's much harder to wriggle out of.
We don’t like being the person who said one thing and did another.
Jacqui's Accountability Law
Put those three together and you get the thing I keep coming back to.
Follow-through isn’t about willpower. It’s about design.
Three ingredients:
Pay for it. We value what we invest in. Free advice gets saved to a folder and never opened. The moment money changes hands, you’re in. Skin in the game turns “someday” into “I’ve paid for this, I’m doing it”.
Set the standard. Vague goals die quietly. A clear, stated standard – one post a week, every week, for ninety days – gives you something to be consistent with. You’ve said it out loud, so now you’re on the hook, to yourself and to whoever heard you.
Be held accountable. Someone checks in. Not to nag, but because being observed lifts your game, and a fortnightly “how did you go?” is a deadline that keeps arriving. The task can’t expand forever when someone is waiting.
Pay for it, set the standard, be held accountable.
Miss any one and it wobbles.
Free, with no standard and no check-in, is a nice idea you’ll never action.
All three together, and follow-through stops being a personality trait and becomes a system.
How to use Jacqui's Accountability Law
You don’t need me to apply it. Pick the thing you keep not doing.
Put something on the line, even a small payment or a stake with a mate. Set one clear, boring standard you can actually hit. And ask someone to check in on a set day, out loud, on the record.
That’s the whole law.
It’s also exactly how I work with people on their personal brand. The ninety-day rhythm, the paid commitment, the fortnightly call – that’s not admin. That’s the Accountability Law doing the heavy lifting.
Because knowing how to show up on LinkedIn was never the problem. Following through was.
Most of us don’t have a knowledge problem. We have a follow-through problem. Fix the design, not the willpower, and the follow-through becomes a whole lot easier.
Sometimes you’re still going to have to run in the rain. The trick is building a system that makes you more likely to keep going.
If the thing you keep not doing is your own visibility, that’s the work I do.
Common questions
What is Jacqui’s Accountability Law?
A simple rule for following through: pay for it, set the standard, and be held accountable. Get all three in place and good intentions turn into consistent action.
Why don’t we follow through on our goals?
Usually because nothing forces the moment. With no deadline and no one watching, Parkinson’s Law takes over and the task expands until it never happens.
Does paying for something make you more likely to do it?
Yes. We value what we invest in, so putting money on the line creates a level of commitment that free resources rarely do.
How does accountability improve follow-through?
Being observed lifts our behaviour – the Hawthorne effect – and commitments we’ve made out loud are ones we feel compelled to honour through commitment and consistency. A regular check-in keeps both working.
Jacqui Gage-Brown
Jacqui Gage-Brown is a Fractional CMO. She works with business owners who are still wearing the marketing hat – stepping in to set the strategy, lead the work and make sure the right things actually get done.
With 20+ years in strategic marketing and business leadership, Jacqui co-founded and directed an award-winning agency before founding LifeWOD. She believes in Working On Dreams and building a thriving, healthy business and life.
Connect on LinkedIn · Work with Jacqui
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📷 Set the standard, be accountable... even when it means running in the rain.
