Accountability is definitely a bit of a buzzword in the fitness industry at the moment.
I’d say it’s always something I’ve tried to help people with, but it’s definitely become more of a thing in general in recent years.
It’s pretty common that people tell me they feel they need it when they first start.
And I came to a bit of a realisation about that recently.
I can’t give people accountability.
I can provide systems and do things that check if they’ve done what they said they would (which is really all accountability is).
But, ultimately, accountability cannot be given.
It is something we choose to take on for ourselves.
And we can choose how much accountability we are willing to take on.
As an extreme example, if we made an arrangement where, if we didn’t lose that weight we’ve been struggling with (or any other goal), someone close to us would die……….
I’m pretty sure every single one of us would lose that weight.
We’ve taken on a level of accountability so great that we would be completely unwilling to not do what we said we would.
Now that is clearly an extreme example.
But it makes you think doesn’t it?
I’m sure we’d still do that thing if the level of accountability we took on was that we would win a million pounds or lose our home.
Would we do it if it was over 50p or our loved one would get a flick on the ear?
Doubtful.
Accountability it’s just a consequence around doing what we said we would.
The level of consequence that I can realistically give is that you know that I’ll check in with you and you’ll feel bad if you don’t do what you promised me that you would.
I’ll follow up, check in with you and question your reasons for not doing things (it’s www.myrise.co.uk/apply for a four week risk free trial of that)
And I’ll reward you for 8 weeks of doing what you said you would with our RISE Rewards system.
But, ultimately, I can’t do anything that you couldn’t just choose to ignore.
If we feel we need for more accountability than that, then there’s a couple of questions that we can ask;
1. What level of consequence are we willing to implement?
2. How are we framing this thing in our head where we say we want it but kind of need to be forced to do it?
I’ll cover that second question in a bit more depth tomorrow.
Much love,
Jon ‘Ladder’ Hall
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
