ACCOUNTABILITY

There is no secret recipe for success. Don’t let the internet fool you because it often tries. Whether its making money, losing weight, finding a significant other or any other desirable human accomplishment, the internet has a quick fix work-around that promises minimal to no effort that delivers everything you want. Can we just step back for a second and use our perfectly capable adult brains and realize there is no quick fix for these things. If it takes you years to put on weight, wouldn’t it be reasonable to think that it would take some time to also lose that weight? Its my job as a practitioner to emphasize the concept of sustained effort and work in order to yield results. I talk about this every single day to every single one of my clients and yet people still seek the easy way out. I refuse to give up hope on those people. Its my responsibility to continually provide quality science-based information to help people find their own path down the road of sustainable health and wellness. My fault is that I’m honest with people about what it actually takes to lose fat, keep it off, build muscle and achieve the physique they’ve always wanted. Its a conversation I have with every potential client before they even start. Its important that they understand the level of commitment involved with truly living a healthy lifestyle as opposed to entering into a fad. Commitment, responsibility, accountability and patience are all virtues that are used in concert to yield the greatest possible results and keep those results. In this article, we will explore my favorite virtue, accountability.

Merriam-Webster defines accountability as an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions. Immediately upon looking at this definition, its easy to see the intimate and personal message it evokes. It suggests that a person can either be obliged or willing to accept responsibility. I would argue that it is much more effective to be willing rather than obligated to accept responsibility. Having said that, people are fundamentally different and thus respond to motivators differently. In the years I’ve spent coaching people, I’ve found that they can get the message in both ways and in my opinion, as long as they are receptive to that message, they should be able to achieve some level of success. When a person is obligated to do something, it very often is an extrinsic factor that is evoking a response. This works for many and in the world of training and nutrition, examples of this can be seen as making and keeping appointments, paying for sessions, and having check-ins to report results and findings. These examples are predominantly extrinsic in nature. A client doesn’t want to make an appointment and not show up in fear of being charged, or having a check-in meeting and report that they are not progressing according to plan. These folks can certainly make some changes in their lives for the better, but how sustainable are those changes when the motivations driving those changes are coming from outside the individual.

Willingness to accept responsibility exhibits a much stronger dedication to change than obligation. When a person is willing to do something, more often than not they’ve had some internal dialogue that has led them to make the decision to head down a certain path. In my opinion, these individuals will not only succeed in achievement but also sustain that success. The main reason for sustainability is the self awareness that it is up to the person individually to act and take ownership of those actions. This can transcend many different facets of life. I find it very valuable in the arena of health and fitness because so much of training and nutrition is individual and mostly unsupervised. If I see a client three times a week for an hour session, that leaves a great deal of time the remainder of the week for that person to be left to their own will. Between busy schedules, varying obligations, daily stressors and life in general, people can always find a scapegoat for inactivity or poor food choices. The people who understand the concept of accountability know that when they miss an opportunity to work out, or put junk food in their system, the only one that suffers is themselves and the only person to blame is themselves. Thats accountability folks. Its as simple as that. Make a decision and live with that decision.

Unfortunately, we live in world that almost blatantly encourages displacing responsibility. This can be seen in sports when referees are blamed for bad calls, bad grades blamed on bad teachers, diets failing due to lack of time, inactivity blamed on not-ideal climates, poor work performance due to a bad boss and relationships failing because the significant other just didn’t do what the other person wanted. While I recognize that sometimes the above things can certainly ring true, I refuse to believe that our rampant hands-off approach to life is the best way to deal with things. Wouldn’t it be great if instead of complaining about all the ways the world has treated someone unjustly, people brushed off their plight, re-calibrated their approach, and attacked their goals with ferocity. I believe its time to take control of your life folks. You’re not fat because you have a slow metabolism, you have a slow metabolism because you let yourself get fat. You’re not tired because you didn’t get enough sleep, you didn't get enough sleep because you sat in front of the television watching Netflix until 3 a.m. I promise you that it is much more satisfying to live life when all of the decisions you make are your own, all of your successes are your own, and all of your failures are also your own. Stop feeling sorry for yourself because the world has dealt you a bad hand. Life is seldom easy, but complaining about how hard it is doesn’t make it any easier. Effort, positive attitude, self awareness, education, and willingness to change are all ways you can make long lasting changes for yourself.

So how do you implement accountability into your life? First, you must recognize that you are not perfect and never will be. Think about some of your weaknesses and if they are habitual like you stay up to late, or drink too much on the weekends, or you don’t make enough time to exercise, tackle those weaknesses one at a time. Its unrealistic to assume that you can change everything in your life all at once and just be awesome immediately. Habitual changes take time to implement and should be done with some level of analysis. For example, if you often find yourself staying up late due to screen time, make it a point to set a bed time and stick to it. Track your adherence to that goal and monitor how you feel on a daily basis. You should notice that as you teach yourself to get more sleep, many other areas of your life will improve and that one change you made cascaded into a meaningful improvement in your overall well-being. This strategy can be used to combat almost any of your shortcomings. If its a lack of activity due to time restrictions, carve out a period of time in your schedule the way you would an important obligation and stick to it. If you have to get up earlier or skip out on a social function then so be it. Just make sure the time is set aside and adhered to. Lastly, and my favorite, rewarding yourself with food or using food as an emotional crutch. You need to understand that food is fuel that should help your body operate optimally. Junk food exists for a reason and should be used sparingly like any other type of vice. If you don’t have control of it, learn to abstain from it. I’m not a mental health professional, but if you can’t go a day without a cupcake or a treat, maybe seek the advice of an addiction specialist that can help you rid yourself of whatever excuse you use to justify your bad habit.

I realize that we’re all human and make mistakes and you’re certainly allowed to enjoy yourself, but understand this, everything you do comes at a price. If you drink to excess, you’ll get hungover. If you chronically eat like crap, you’ll feel like crap and if you regularly neglect your body, it will break down. Find ways to achieve balance and take time for yourself to do some introspective thinking. You’ll be surprised what you can learn in just a brief period of shutting out the outside noise and learning more about yourself. Treat your mind and your body with care and respect and you will come to a place of sustainable inner peace and continual self progression. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to email me at aram@4weeks2thebeach.com and keep up the good work!