Accountability = Results

Do you have an accountability partner?

Whether it’s a coach, training partner, life partner, work colleague or friend, having someone to hold you accountable is HUGE as a tool to progress, make changes and continue progressing.

The decision to make a change ultimately comes from you, so you first have to be accountable to yourself.

And that can be a big first step to take if you’re coming from a point of little-to-no exercise and nutrition experience. 

Or even if you have been training for a while, being honest enough with yourself to consider reaching out for greater accountability can be a bold move, but one that will be of great importance to your ongoing progress.

Thankfully there are plenty of people available to help, including friends, family, personal trainers, coaches, and many more.

And once you have that accountability partner, you create a link in your mind such that you don’t want to let them, or yourself down, which can be amazing in those moments when you feel like cheating on the diet, or skipping that training session.

That person will be there to keep you on track. They will remind you of the goals you shared with them and the reasons that you’re doing what you’re doing to reaffirm the importance of keeping going!

That person doesn’t necessarily have to have the same goals as you (if they do you can both reciprocate the accountability but it is not essential).

I have shared my goals with my friends, family and coach but I train alone most of the time, I follow my own nutrition plan and that means I have to be accountable to myself first and foremost.

You can do this in many ways but below are a few ideas that have helped me:

1. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
2. Be accountable to yourself first and don’t try and cheat or lie to impress anyone else!
3. Be 100% honest with yourself about your training and diet…weight lifted, reps performed, deviations from diet…these will all be essential to make progress in the longer term!
4. SHARE YOUR GOALS/PROGRESS
5. An incredibly important method is to share your goals and your progress with someone else.
6. This creates accountability to someone other than yourself and you are more likely to achieve your goals when you have vocalised them and created an externalised commitment.
7. LOG YOUR WORKOUTS
8. This is VITAL
9. Whether in physical notebook form or electronically on your phone/tablet etc, record your sessions, exercise, weight lifted and number of reps as a minimum.
10. Each session, refer back to the previous week and attempt to better it – an extra rep, an increase in weight, it’s all progress!