The Accountability Coach's Dirty Secret

It's time to call BS on me...

Jun 13, 2025

I promise you this isn’t a click-bait post.

When I tell people I'm an accountability coach, they assume I have my shit together.

They picture someone who wakes up at 5am, attacks their to-do list with military precision, and never puts anything off until tomorrow.

Here's the truth: I've been procrastinating on critical website updates for my business for three weeks.

Three. Fucking. Weeks.

Oh, and this post? It was supposed to go out two days ago. But then I realized Friday was going to be my reckoning day—the day I had to buckle down and get this shit done—so I decided to write about what I was actually going through instead of some sanitized version of productivity advice.

What am I procrastinating on?

Updates that are directly tied to a new offering launch for Go Long.

Updates with a hard deadline because my collaborator has an immovable personal commitment.

Updates that will literally generate new revenue for my small business.

And every time I sit down to tackle them, the same thought loop starts: "Gosh, so much to do. Where do I want to start so it looks great?"

Then I pivot to something else. I mean, there’s always another tab open, right? (IYKYK)

This week alone, I had prospect calls, closed sales, tweaked my pricing model, and conducted workshops for a couple of corporate clients. It's not like I'm doing nothing—I'm staying busy with revenue-generating activities. But this deliverable keeps hanging over me, creating this low-level anxiety that follows me everywhere.

The irony isn't lost on me. I'm literally letting perfection be the enemy of good—the exact trap I coach my clients to avoid.

The "I Should Know Better" Trap

Here's what happens when you're an expert who gets stuck in your own expertise blind spot:

The shame multiplies.

It's not just "I'm procrastinating."

"I should know better than this."

"I literally help people with this problem."

"What kind of accountability coach can't hold herself accountable?"

But here's what I've learned from being on both sides—as the coach who helps people get unstuck AND as someone who occasionally gets paralyzed by her own to-do list:

Procrastination isn't a character flaw. It's insidious, and it undermines your confidence in ways that go far beyond the task you're avoiding.

When I finally managed to complete one piece of another project yesterday (95% done—only held up by an app bug), something shifted. Not just because I made progress, but because I remembered something crucial:

The work I'm avoiding isn't busy work. It's revenue-generating work. It matters for my business. A lot.

The Momentum Framework That Actually Works

Forget the productivity porn you see on LinkedIn. Forget the "I wake up at 4am and crush my goals" posts.

LinkedIn has become just as bad as Facebook and Instagram with the "perfect life" bullshit. Everyone's crushing it, no one's struggling, and we're all supposed to pretend that's normal.

Yes, I may get up early to work out, but that doesn't mean I love it. I just know it's the best time for me to get it done. It took me a long time to figure that out and even longer to accept that I don't have to love getting up at 5 AM like so many people claim they do.

Here's what actually gets me (and my clients) unstuck:

Step 1: Find One Thing Not the perfect starting point. Not the most logical sequence. Just one thing you can do right now to gain momentum.

Step 2: Then Another Once you complete that first thing, the mental resistance starts to crack. You're not looking for the next perfect thing—you're looking for the next possible thing.

I've already identified the first two things I'm going to tackle: make updates to the landing page for a new lead magnet based on some feedback and then update my email sequence (the text is already written so it’s literally a ‘copy and paste’). Not the sexiest tasks, but they're concrete and I can knock them out quickly to get momentum going.

Step 3: Keep Going Momentum builds momentum. Each small completion makes the next one easier.

I've set my alarm early tomorrow morning and am committed to finishing this tomorrow by 5pm before I can work on anything else—including prep for a big milestone at Chez Beck in two weeks. I told my husband I can't do my homework until the website is done. Sometimes you need to hold yourself hostage to your own priorities.

I also have a couple of meetings that will naturally break up the day, which is perfect. I can set incremental goals for what I can accomplish in 30 or 60-minute chunks instead of staring at some amorphous "all day" time block where everything feels ambiguous and overwhelming.

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The Public Accountability Play

Here's something most people get wrong about procrastination: they think they need to find a huge block of uninterrupted time to tackle big projects.

That's not going to happen unless you take extraordinary measures.

Like me writing this post and publishing it for all my subscribers to see.

Sometimes publicly calling your shot is exactly what you need. There's nothing wrong with using external pressure when internal motivation isn't enough.

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be working on my updates. Not because I found the perfect time or the perfect starting point, but because I've made it impossible not to follow through.

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What Everyone Gets Wrong About Procrastination

The biggest lie we tell ourselves: "I'm the only one who struggles with this."

Bullshit.

Everyone procrastinates. The people posting about their flawless productivity systems on social media? They procrastinate too. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook—it's all the same performance of perfection. The difference is they don't talk about it.

But I will.

Because here's what I want you to understand: You're not a failure because you procrastinate. You're human.

The goal isn't to never procrastinate again. The goal is to recognize it faster, have a framework for getting unstuck, and know when to call in reinforcements (like public accountability).

Name It, Claim It, Explain It

Here's something I've learned both as a coach and as someone who gets stuck: the power of naming what you're avoiding out loud.

When I finally said "I'm procrastinating on my website updates because I'm overwhelmed by perfectionism," something shifted. I wasn't just stuck anymore—I was stuck for a reason I could identify and address.

Then I claimed it: This is exactly the kind of challenge that makes me uniquely qualified to help others get unstuck. I'm not procrastinating despite being an accountability coach—I'm procrastinating as a human being who happens to coach others through the same struggles. The fact that I experience this makes me better at what I do, not worse.

And now I'm explaining it to all of you. Because the dirty secret of expertise isn't that you never struggle—it's that you struggle and still know how to move forward anyway.

Why You Should Still Hire Me (Maybe Even More So)

Here's what this post proves: I don't coach from an ivory tower of perfect productivity. I coach from the trenches, where real people get stuck on real things for real reasons.

When you're beating yourself up for procrastinating, I get it. Not theoretically—viscerally. When perfectionism has you paralyzed, I've been there. When you know what to do but can't seem to do it, I understand that frustration intimately.

But here's the difference: I also know how to get unstuck. I have frameworks that work even when I'm in the thick of it myself. By tomorrow evening, my website will be done—not because I'm superhuman, but because I have systems that work for humans.

If you're ready to stop beating yourself up and start moving forward, let's talk. Book a discovery call and we'll figure out what's really keeping you stuck and how to get you moving again.

The Bottom Line

Procrastination is data, not a verdict.

When I catch myself avoiding something, I ask: What's really going on here? Is it perfectionism? Overwhelm? Unclear priorities? Fear of not doing it well enough?

In my case, it was all of the above wrapped up in "where do I even start so this looks great?"

The answer turned out to be simple: Start anywhere. Make it work first. Make it pretty later.

Tomorrow morning, while you're reading this, I'll be working on those website updates. Not because I found the perfect plan, but because I found one thing I could do today.

And that's all any of us really need to get unstuck: one thing, then another, then another.

Until we're moving again.

What are you procrastinating on right now? Name it, claim why it's important to you and your goals, and explain it to someone (even if it's just me). Hit reply and tell me. Sometimes the simple act of putting it into words is the first step toward momentum.