- Involve your family and friends. Make sure they know what you are trying to do and ask for help. If you can receive their support it can do wonders. Also, one of the biggest ways for them to support you is by joining you in your journey. That way, you can learn from each other by sharing triumphs and missteps. If nothing else, ask them to talk to you each day about what's going on so you know that when the end of the day comes you will have to fess up to any missteps you may have taken.
- Provide yourself with incentives for staying on track. A lot of people like to use food incentives but I would lean more toward things that you want that are not food related. Striving to meet your goals for the week so you can treat yourself to an expensive show rather than treat yourself to your favorite double cheeseburger, is obviously better suited for a healthful set of goals.
- Personally, this blog is really helping to keep me on track with my goals. I remember right before posting the entry that talked about my long term goal of running that marathon, I looked over at my girlfriend and gave her a nervous but excited look. Because I knew that once I posted it, I would have to follow through with it. Now I'm not saying that everybody should start a blog but finding some way to put what you say you're going to do down "on record" so it can be provided as proof and as a reminder of what you sought to accomplish. This is one of many reasons that it may be worth it to get out and find a personal trainer. They should be setting goals up with you and holding you accountable for them.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Day Nine: Accountability
Sometimes a great motivator for meeting a goal is if you are being held accountable in some way. Following are some ways to keep yourself accountable:
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Hi Jay,
ReplyDeleteThis is always a tough one for me. I'll be really good at going to the gym and working out, but then I have a busy or tiring day and I'll skip it, "just this once." Next thing I know it's been a week and then I feel like I'm starting from scratch again. This happens to be one of those weeks...how do I keep myself motivated, especially when I'm busy and tired?
The short answer... it depends. haha I think it really depends on the person and what motivates them, what triggers that, and the person's own trial and error with what works.
ReplyDeletePersonally, if I'm having a rough day and not looking forward to exercising and start seriously considering not doing it I try to find ways to make the idea of it more appealing. This could be allowing myself to buy a CD if I go so that I'll have some new jams for my workout. Sometimes I'll tell myself that I don't have to do as much during the workout as I was planning on doing as long as I get there. It can even be as simple as switching up what I was planning on doing. Maybe I was planning on swimming but as soon as I thought of playing a little basketball my motivation came back.
Sometimes I turn on my workout tunes at home to get me in the mood to exercise. If there's something that get's you in the mood or gets you energized, then try to harness that. At one point I had episodes of Biggest Loser saved on my DVR and would watch a little bit of the "last chance workout" segment to get me motivated.
Perception is everything. If all you're thinking about leading up to exercise is how much you're dreading it, then there's a good chance you aren't going to do it. Focusing on any good things that you can find could be the difference between following through and well... not. Thinking about how good you're going to feel after, thinking about what you're going to do to make the experience fun, and focusing on any incentives you have laid out for yourself can help.
Anyway, I feel like I'm starting to ramble so I'll leave it at that.
Thanks for the comment Mel!
Thanks Jason, these are good ideas. I still haven't done so well with the exercise consistency, but I'm going to the gym today!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!