With tax season come and gone, it seems like an appropriate time to audit yourself! You are probably wondering, “what does fitness have to do with auditing?” You are also probably wondering why you would voluntarily audit yourself! Before we get lost in the land of confusion, I mean let’s specifically audit our fitness goals we set for the year.
We are a quarter of the way through the year. How are your fitness goals coming along? If they are going well, you have undoubtedly been faithful to your exercise routine and diligent with your nutrition. If they are not going well, life has intervened in one facet or another and it has led you idle in your journey. What is the difference between the two? Effort and accountability.
Sure, some days things pop up that cannot be avoided, but how do we stay committed to something when our commitment is tested? We have to hold ourselves accountable. After all, they are our goals. We made a commitment to achieving this goal for a reason, because it means something to us, it is important to us.
If we do not hold ourselves accountable, who will? There are some of us that have a familial support system, but they have their own ambitions that drive them. Your goals aren’t necessarily at the top of that list.
There are yet more of us who have companions that join us when we exercise. They are helpful and supportive, yes, but they are not with you nearly the amount of time that you are with you. Yet again, they have similar ambitions but different means of motivation. They help you get through a hard workout but they are not there to make sure you make the other 23 hours meaningful.
Lastly, there are even fewer of us that have fitness professionals to talk to and receive motivation from. However, that motivation is always taken with a grain of salt because they do it for a living, they have to be excited about it, right? Also, try as they may, they don’t control everything you do for the other 23 hours you don’t see them!
A consistent form of motivation and commitment has to be within you. Whether that means you have to reward yourself every time you go to the gym or that means you have to go outside of your comfort zone and push yourself a little, you have to be true to yourself and your ambitions. People can tell you that you need to do something, but unless it comes from within you, it may have just the opposite effect.
Achieving goals is difficult! It becomes even more difficult when there’s no accountability or follow through when workouts get missed or nutrition plans are cheated on. Just like the IRS holds us accountable if we cheat on our taxes, we need to hold ourselves accountable if we cheat on ourselves. Let’s audit ourselves more often, and unlike tax season, let’s do it more frequently than once a year!
Jack is a Tri Fitness Coach, and his credentials include NASM CPT, B.S. in Kinesiology, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. If you’d like help setting and achieving your health and wellness goals, please contact Jack at jack@tfcoachingmn.com to set up an appointment.