Accountability

"What will you do when you realise it was always down to you"

I can't get that quote out of my head at the moment!

And that's a good thing. I'll tell you why.

I first heard it said on the Mike Dolce podcast which is by the way an awesome resource to listen to.

Mike was talking about accountability and it's role in someone's fitness journey. And it hit home hard with me.

A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y.

Accountability to me can be defined as taking responsibility for your actions and accepting the consequences of those actions.

Nobody is responsible for the results you get, apart from YOU. and YOU only. 

You cannot expect to achieve results, with the work you didnt do, and then blame somebody else as things didn't go right. 

Take responsibility for your actions, and get the results you want. Push yourself further than before, and be accountable for your own results -then sit down, pat yourself on the back and be proud of what you have achieved!!!!

The sooner people realise they need to be accountable for their decisions and actions the better.

When it comes to a persons health and fitness, if they are not happy with it for whatever reason, it is no one else's fault than their own that they find themselves in the position they are in.

Ok, there are the extremes such as people with serious illnesses beyond their control or someone who has been injured by a third party but on the whole people need to take full responsibility for their current state of health and wellbeing.

No one made you eat like a pig for all those years or made you smoke 20 cigarettes every day for the past 10 years. Or made you choose to sit watching tv for 4hrs on an evening every night instead of taking some sort of exercise.

You made the decision to eat take away too often and drink that extra bottle of wine every weekend and continually buy processed ready meals because you 'didn't have time' to prepare a proper meal. That's bullshit by the way and a terrible excuse for not eating right. But I'll keep that topic for another day.

You made all those choices. No one else. 

Now before you close this blog down and call me a dick for just having a go please hear me out.

The reason I say all these things is because I was that person not all that long ago. I made so many bad decisions where my health and fitness was concerned. And I blamed everyone and everything except myself for that. 

I came up with excuses in my head why I couldn't be bothered to go to the gym. I chose not to learn how to cook a decent meal because it was easier to nip to the chip shop.

I told myself there's plenty of time to be healthy when I'm 'older' and I'm going to enjoy another blow out on the drink on Saturday night because I'm young and I can.

But then I became accountable for my actions.

I had the lightbulb moment when I realised I was getting no younger and I needed to take control of my health because no one else was going to do it for me.

I made myself accountable to myself first and foremost. I set myself goals which I held myself responsible for achieving. Initially I asked no one for help in achieving them and the feeling when I start reaching these targets and goals was amazing.

I then started sharing some of my goals with others. Just people really close to me such as family members or a good mate.

This then made me feel accountable to them as well as myself as I didn't want them to see me fail. This is a great method actually as I found it really spurs you on when the old demons start creeping back into the back of your mind.

I would only have myself to blame if I didn't stick to my goals and I wanted to show everyone I could achieve what I set out to do.

What I want you to get out of this message is that once you take responsibility for what's gone on before it's so much easier to become accountable for your future.

Find a way, whatever way you find best, to use accountability to stick to your goals.

Set yourself targets and stick to them. For yourself.

Tell others your goals if you think it will help.

Tell the world if you like. People love sharing everything on Facebook and the likes these days so why not use that as a platform to becoming accountable. It's not for me I must admit but I've seen great examples of it put to good use.

Whatever you decide, start being accountable for it right now. It's never too late to start a fresh.

Because otherwise,

"What will you do when you realise it was always down to you"