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ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

I talk and write a lot about the importance of accountability when working towards any form of goal. Being accountable is accepting responsibility for your own actions, and having someone monitoring and reviewing your actions keeps you honest.

In the gym, coaches are the first line of accountability. You need to book for classes and they can tell who’s showing up or not. In class they teach you how to move and guide you to finding that balance between technique and intensity. You also have your fellow members keeping you accountable in the gym. Knowing they’ll be there ushers you off the couch, they support and motivate you in training, and when you’re slacking they will call you out.

There is no questioning that accountability helps. You, however, do still need to do the work. Just turning up or only eating well when it’s time for a review because your mates are turning up to class and you have a nutrition review coming up will get you nowhere. Accountability only helps when you own your actions.

Owning your actions means habitually making good decisions in and out of the gym. Habits like caring for your low back when moving any form of load, modifying the workout to your abilities, moving well AND counting properly when (you think) nobody’s watching, scheduling and turning up to your nutrition reviews, sticking to your nutrition goals even when the company you’re with don’t care, like warming up and cooling down properly.

If you don’t maintain good habits, even when your sources of accountability aren’t around, you’ll falter. And you’ll only feel the fall when you hit the ground. Hold yourself to the standard.

 

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