Photographed by Lukasz Pukowiec for Vogue Arabia.
The key to success in making a healthy change this year and sticking to it is being able to keep yourself accountable. When you’re accountable for your actions you always make the best choice for your health no matter what the circumstances. You say no to things that lead you off track, you spend time with people that make you feel great, you learn from your mistakes, pick yourself up quickly, and never let one “bad” day distract your goals and most importantly you have confidence in your ability to succeed.
Below, health & personal empowerment coach Heidi Jones shares some accountability practices to keep you on track this year:
1. Check in on your daily performance
Write down three performance related questions each morning. At the end of the day give yourself a performance rating out of five (Five being ‘couldn’t have been any better, zero being ‘I didn’t try at all today’).
Example:
2019 Health goal – to lose weight
Performance questions:
Did I do my best today to choose the healthiest option for lunch at work?
Did I do my best today to reach my daily water intake?
Did I do my best today to go for a 30-minute walk?
2. Learn from your behavior in five minutes
Reflect each day how you behaved by asking yourself these two questions:
What went well?
What could I have done better?
3. Dig deep once a week
Set up a weekly self-reflection ritual to help you keep your health goals a priority throughout the year. Powerful questions to answer each week:
What does this goal mean to you?
What did you learn about yourself this week?
What is working? What is not?
What behaviors are most effective?
What are you most proud of?
4. Have lunch with people who are already living the life you want
Spending time with people who are already ahead of you will provide inspiration and know-how to help you to keep moving forward.
5. Set yourself up with an accountability partner
Meet up with your accountability partner on a weekly basis to discuss what’s been working and what hasn’t for you. By sharing your experience with someone out loud you are able to keep perspective by identifying what you need to do to keep moving forward.
6. Keep check on your triggers
Write down the triggers that lead you off track or spark excuses for you to give up. This self-awareness activity will help you recognize patterns in your behavior. You can use this self-awareness to adapt or change your behavior and break this pattern when you are triggered again.
7. Own your environment
Your environment makes a huge impact on your ability to be successful. Are the people, places, things around you supporting your goals or hindering them?
Use a notebook to list the people you interact with the most, the places where you spend the most time and the things you do most often. Then revisit each item and next to each put a check if it is supporting your goals or an x if it is hindering them. When you’re done take a look at the items with x’s.
Consider the following questions:
How can you limit, remove or shift your interaction with these aspects of your environment?
What can you add in to enhance your environment and better align it with your vision and goals?
Health & personal empowerment coach Heidi Jones has been empowering her clients to use this approach for achieving optimal health and improved lifestyle habits for the past 4 years. Heidi’s coaching methods are underpinned with research, focus on implementing preventative strategies, developing a growth mind-set and action based self-awareness techniques. Visit heidijonescoaching.com. Follow @heidi_jones_coaching
