Accountability

While accountability is an important part of our lives, it often gets overlooked in the area of exercise. We know exercise is a key component to a healthy lifestyle, yet across the nation, we are not getting enough of it. The biggest reason for our lack of exercise is our lack of accountability.
Accountability is the foundation of business, relationships and any endeavor involving more than one person. It is the glue that holds teams together and allows them to progress. So, why does it get overlooked in regard to our health? It gets overlooked because many of us don’t hold ourselves accountable.
Would you stand your friend up if you had a lunch set up? Would you blow off a meeting at work? Would you tell your boss that “it’s no big deal that I didn’t show up to work today…I’ll try to be there tomorrow”? I don’t think so! These are all examples of ways that others hold us accountable. So we do have difficulty holding ourselves accountable?
Well, there are many reasons for each of our challenges to get enough exercise. Some of us don’t set realistic goals- we expect to be in the gym every day after years of inactivity. Others don’t manage time well- we expect to be able to cram more meetings and errands into each day than we have time for. And some of us just plain don’t want to change- we’ve all had days when we simply chose not to exercise. The simplest steps for any of us to start holding ourselves accountable are listed below. These are just a few of the steps that we can all take to make exercise a part of our regular routine:
1. SET AN APPOINTMENT- Make an appointment for your exercise session. You would never deliberately skip an appointment with a friend or coworker (if you would, we have some other goals for you to work on). So put an appointment on your calendar at the time you want to do your exercise. This is why having an exercise partner or a trainer works so well. Having another person meeting you there or going with you makes it harder to blow off.
(Stay tuned for more details on how to make your exercise appointments work for you)
2. WRITE IT DOWN- Write your goals down. People that set their daily, weekly or monthly goals in writing are more likely to achieve them. Sometimes just writing it on the calendar is enough to hold you accountable. This will not only help you get a feel for a realistic schedule, but it will also help you reach your goals and become more consistent.
(Coming soon: more specific ways to master goal setting)

These are just two ways that I wanted to share with you. There are many ways to make this more advanced and customized for you. Next time, I will elaborate on each of these two steps and help you to make them work in your routine. By taking each of these to the next level, you will be doing the same with your exercise routine. And we all know what the results will be.

Exercise is a major component of a healthy lifestyle. While many of us struggle to get enough, it doesn’t mean that we are doomed to suffer the consequences of a sedentary life. Changes can be made and they are often not as difficult as we think they are going to be. You are not alone. You can make changes in your life and your health coach can help you. You and your coach will work together to set realistic goals and they will support you on your journey to reach them.