A fitness friend of mine recently retweeted something along the lines of “Write down your fitness goals, then share them with someone. That way the person can hold you accountable.”
WHAT?
I am familiar with this concept, and I guess it helps some people, but what is going on in the world when we need to make someone else hold us accountable for our own fitness? I am the one who needs to be fit, these are my goals.
I am accountable only to myself!
As a matter of fact, the only reason anyone besides my brother and my wife knew I was doing Tony Horton’s P90X when I first started it, was because my wife had told people at work, when P90X came up in conversation. I didn’t tell anybody. None of their business.
Now, I didn’t mind that my wife had told people, but I’m less social. Honestly, I never brought it up to people, because I didn’t want to have to converse about it. But I certainly didn’t need them to hold me accountable. I knew I was ready to get fit, and that I was going to get up and press play every day for 90 days. And I did. Accountable to no one but myself.
I am not on a soapbox here. Different strokes for different folks. If telling someone else about your goals helps you, please, by all means, do that. Anything that helps you stay on track is great!
But I will share with you my response to that original tweet from my fitness friend: “Grow the f*ck up Hold your own damn self accountable!”
At some point in our lives, we all need to figure out how to hold ourselves accountable. If we don’t, well, that’s how we get into trouble. We try to get away with stuff. We figure no one will ever know if we [insert something you should not do here]. Then, of course, at some point, someone does know, someone does find out, and … trouble. Divorce. Financial struggles. Legal problems.
I guess this has ended up being more of a rant than a fitness lesson, but, seriously, think about how well you hold your own self accountable for your actions. Live a strong life, hold yourself to high standards, and you will certainly sidestep a multitude of life’s problems.