Ways to Develop Accountability in Your Wellness Journey  — Lionesses of Africa

By Emily Kandanga

We are a sum of all of our habits. Habits run our lives. Who we are and what we can accomplish are largely dependent on our daily routines and behaviours. You are either getting better and working towards becoming your best self or you’re moving in the opposite direction.

Maintaining accountability is an important part of smashing any goal you set. Your goal may be to focus on making more time to improve your physical fitness, or to reduce stress in your life or it could simply be to practice more gratitude and awareness. Whatever your goal is, taking personal accountability for the outcomes of your actions can and will help you improve your overall health. 

Before we dive into a few ways that you can implement to help keep you more accountable, let’s discuss the difference between accountability and responsibility. Responsibility is when you make a decision about the actions you set out to take. Accountability goes deeper – you are not just responsible for the actions you take, but you take ownership of the longer-term outcomes of those actions. 

So, you may be thinking… How does this relate to fitness? Being accountable means recognising that skipping a workout can negatively impact your path to building sustainable healthy habits. 

In today’s post I’m sharing a few ways to keep yourself accountable! 

1. Set clear goals & remove the blame

Goal setting is one of the best ways to ensure you have clarity over your health and wellness goals and the results you’d like to achieve. Setting SMART goals will keep you focused and allow you to track you to clearly track your progress. You can use your goals to make sure you stay on track and remind yourself of why you’re taking the actions you are taking, such as setting your alarm for 6am so you can work out before your day begins. Remember that setbacks are a completely normal part of the process, so try not to shift blame onto other people or things. Do your best to not throw yourself a pity party when things get off track, instead recognize that you have full control over your actions and their outcomes. 

2. Reward your adherence

Remember, you are not just responsible for the negative consequences of your actions – you are also responsible for the positive results of your actions too! And guess what that means? You guessed it. You get to fully enjoy the outcomes of your actions and do so as often as you can. This might mean rewarding yourself for getting all your workouts done in one week by having a movie night with your friends or buying yourself something you’ve been wanting for a while.

3. Do only, the things you truly enjoy

Whether you are trying to get more active or practice mindfulness, do your best to make developing wellness habits enjoyable for you. Find a training style that you enjoy or make sure your meditation app you are using is one that you like. It may seem quite simple to understand but sometimes it’s hard to apply. When you take pride in being personally accountable, you can make conscious choices to achieve the outcomes you want by doing the activities that you actually enjoy. 

4. Develop a schedule

Having some sort of a system for you to measure and track your wellness habits can help you maintain your progress and stay on track. When something goes wrong, it is easier to look at your schedule (system) and determine where things might have slipped up. Make peace with the fact that there will always be fluctuations in schedules and timing – that’s life! But if you are able to identify where things might have stopped you from meeting your goals, it is easier to find a solution so that you can try and prevent it from happening again. 

5. Keep track of your progress

I’ve touched on this word a lot throughout this article, progress. If you have set goals for yourself, an important part of measuring your success is keeping track of your progress. Knowing your progress can also keep you motivated to pursue your objectives. Check out this video and get some ideas on how you can track your progress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsyr287uv1M&t=185s&ab_channel=EmilyKandanga 

6. Have a back-up plan

Remember what we said in point 4 about setbacks being a part of the process? Yeah, so now that’s clear – develop a plan for it. It’s important to have a plan in place so that you’re in the best possible position to still get things done. Routines rarely ever stay the same (the irony huh!), so be prepared to shift and take action when they do.

7. Reflect

Take some time to reflect on how far you’ve come and darling always celebrate yours wins!