A few years ago, one of my friends talked me into a 5k “mud run” at the Marine base near us. This was a day that the base let nonmilitary folks come and run the bootcamp obstacle course for prizes.

My friend, who plays competitive soccer, left me in the dust after the first mile. After another mile, which included a long, winding, uphill dirt road, I decided to walk a little. I hadn’t been walking 20 seconds when I heard screaming behind me.

“Why are you walking!? Who told you that you could walk!?” It was a big, burly Marine drill sergeant, and he was clearly talking to me. I’m not sure whether it was fear, shock, or respect, but my feet started moving.

“I want you to keep running, son. And, if you even think about walking again, you come find me first. I’ll talk you out of it.” I ran the entire rest of the race, though I nearly puked my brains out afterward.

You need accountability when it comes to this plan. You need someone to talk you out of giving up. You need someone to pat you on the back as you succeed. You need someone who can see that you are moving toward the finish line, even though you feel like you’re barely crawling.

My biggest recommendation in finding an accountability partner is to find someone who also wants to get out of debt. That way, you two can run this race together. Here are some other practical pointers on choosing an accountability partner:

Unless you have a spouse who is really excited to get out of debt as well, you should find someone who is emotionally separated from your debt. Even other close family members may make poor choices, because They may not be able to be completely honest.

True accountability takes hearing and saying the hard things sometimes. Your relationship should be secure
enough that your accountability partner can give you a hard time without you taking it personally.

A good accountability partner will be able to grab coffee with you once a month, at a pre-arranged time. They’ll be able to review your Progress Chart from earlier in the chapter with you, and ask the critical questions about why and how things are changing.

If you cannot find an accountability partner on your own, or you think your use of debt may truly border on compulsive, the Debtor’s Anonymous (DA) program may be for you. Modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs, this program helps people stop using debt, one day at a time.