Big Goals Take Accountability And Partners
In 2015, I completed the NYC Marathon. I consider it to be one of the biggest achievements in my adult life, along with starting a successful social impact strategic practice, and surviving cancer a couple of times. But I’ll tell you right now, I NEVER would have achieved them without some pretty serious accountability structures and a partner (or 6) in place to hold my feet to the fire. Because these were all things I REALLY wanted to achieve.
So, when COP 26 ended this weekend with some pretty loose commitments to “phase coal down, not out”, and “reassess at COP 27 next year”. I threw my hands up. Who was going to hold the world’s most powerful economies to the fire like mine were? The UN? The desperate people of the Maldives?
I wasn’t and am not as cynical as Grete with the “Blah Blah Blah”, but I do know personally what overcoming mountains in a year, when you’re told the end of your life is probably now actually takes. In 2014 I was supposed to die on an operating table with my head cut open. I can still feel the painful staples that are tenuously keeping my skull and brain intact. But the day after, when I could actually walk and think lucidly (after so many months of thinking I was about to go) I put a plan in place for myself with real goals. I was going to run the marathon I’d been training for in 2014, but do it in 2015. Heck, I was going to RUN again. In the meantime, as part of my training, I was going to go to New Zealand and SEE those darn elves and hobbits and climb all the mountains I’d been hearing about from my intimate friends.
But I also put a team together that was going to make sure I got there. My upstairs neighbors and other hiking crew gave me their gear with some seriously heavy stuff in it and told me to start walking Harlem Hill in Central Park over and over again. And a Kiwi friend who was planning on traveling home to see her family on the North Island before my trek, said she’d start running with me again. So did my good friends Nnamdi, Gina, Natalie and Jeanie. And so did The NYC Chapter of Team in Training as well as Memorial Sloan Kettering's Fred's Team. And then of course there were my neurosurgical and oncology teams carefully monitoring my medication to make sure I didn’t have a debilitating seizure during any of these adventures.
And guess what? In a year I did climb through New Zealand, and Slovenia, and Patagonia. And I DID complete the marathon, thanks to Jeanie (photographed) and Nnamdi, who also joined along the road.
But here’s the kicker, I WANTED to climb, I WANTED to run, I WANTED to live, I WANTED to see another year and more. But in order to achieve all that, I NEEDED structure and goals, and measures of success, and people who were going to force me out of bed at 4:30 to start training.
As such, when I hear vague language like “try” and “intend” and “phase down”, I have to wonder…. Is this really what they WANT? Where’s the Commitment? The Structure? The Measures? Because real change and goals DEMAND rigor. And a real commitment to Accountability by MANY.
So, as I move into this week, I know what I’m going to do to push that accountability -- by working with people and organizations like me who know what climate goals and measures really are and what they require.
What will you do?
Holly Lynch is a 20+ year communications veteran and life-long social impact advocate and strategist who has helped individuals, educational leaders, and companies tackle the toughest challenges in their worlds.
Having survived countless life setbacks and two rounds with terminal cancer, while seeing the country-wide collapse of the systems and safety nets for the most vulnerable in and outside our communities, she is now shifting her life and career trajectories to focus on coaching those facing down fundamental shifts and transitions as they try to navigate and rebuild their lives, institutions and businesses during these unprecedented times.