Positive Domino Effects

There's a commercial out for, I think, breakfast sandwiches or something like that where it talks about how one good decision can impact other decisions and so on and so forth. Basically it is the Domino Effect in a positive fashion - each one impacts the next and creates a chain reaction. You get me, right? :-)

Well, that's where I'm at right now - I feel like I've been able to put some real momentum into my dominoes and they are a tumbling left and right and creating a massively awesome chain reaction! And it feels AH-MAZ-ING!!! Now granted, I know that sometimes the gap between my dominoes is set too far and it momentarily derails it. But with just a little adjustment, it is back up and running again. So what have I been doing to make this happen? Keeping at my goals that I set at the beginning of the year. Plain and simple...let's do a quick goal check.

Goal #1 - Be Financially Responsible
I've been keeping up on my checkbook each week, setting a budget at the beginning of each month, getting bills paid, and have my tax appointment this weekend. So far, so good and I really, really, really like how it removes an immense amount of stress to have it all settled every week and at the beginning of the month. Removing the stress of wondering where I'm at with my funds allows me to focus on the other important things in life.

Goal #2 - Position Myself for a Work Promotion
I've been super productive at work, especially the past several weeks, and that has allowed me to get to a place that I'm not just marking urgent items off of the to-do list, but I'm actually getting to the things that are always at the bottom of the pile. Because IF I do get that promotion at the end of the year then someone else will also have to come in and do my job and I really want to leave everything in a good place for whoever that person might be. I'm also dressing the part, rocking my leadership class, and putting the pieces in place to continue my educational pursuits. I'm getting great feedback from the big guy so I feel like I'm on the right track here.

Goal #3 - Get to Goal Weight
I'm down about 11 pounds since the first of the year and have (mostly) been eating well and hitting my workouts. I had a terrible flu for a good solid week at the end of February that really took a lot out of me, but I'm pretty much fully recovered at this point and am using full effort in my workouts. Additionally, I had zero appetite while I was sick, so the flu diet paid off for me. I was a little worried about regaining the weight that I lost while sick when I started eating again, but I just had to realize that I was going to most likely bounce up a few pounds because no matter what I needed to eat especially if I wanted to get my workouts going full steam again. I did regain about 2 pounds and I'm okay with that. But the good news is that I'm below 170 for the first time in FOREVERRRRR and my clothes are really starting to fit loose. I would say I'm mostly on track with this goal, but do have minor setbacks like too much fast food as I recovered from being sick and those darn Girl Scout cookies. They are pure evil.

Goal #4 - Develop My Blog
This is the one goal that I really feel I've been failing with. But with that said, I really do feel like I'm getting to a better place to start adding that priority in a little more. I've been so focused on goals 1-3 that something had to give and this was the one. But with getting those things into a habits formed, domino effect mode I feel I can start to work on making this one a habit too. Baby steps...

As far as some of my lesser goals or intentions, I'm four books in on this year so far which is awesome since last year I think I maybe read 4 books total and the hubby and I made some great progress on things that needed maintenance around the house back in late January/early February but have stalled out recently - BUT we do have a list and are working on prioritizing it. Some of the things I'm not necessarily nailing right now are writing in a journal, getting to work on time, etc. But I'm still committed to working towards them and that's the really great thing about goals or intentions - you don't have to quit because you have a setback! You just dust yourself off and keep going and that's what I'm doing.

And you know the best thing? Having some goals in place and continuing to strive for them is helping me make even more good decisions and that makes me happy which makes me try harder and it's one of those awesome circles of positive!

QUESTION: How are your 2016 goals going so far? Have you checked in on them lately?

Accountability is Key

The last couple of weeks all the FitApproach/Sweat Pink Ambassadors were talking Motivation and Goals and I even wrote a couple posts - one on the blog and one on FitApproach. To keep with that theme, we are now talking about strategies for being successful with those goals and how we are going to stay accountable to them. I'd like to talk about Accountability today...one of those three pieces of your girl-squad along with Motivation and Consistency (if you read the Motivation post it makes total sense...trust me. LOL).

The thing is Accountability is critical to your fitness and health success - especially if you have some big goals that you're trying to accomplish! Can you do it alone? Sure...but why go it alone if you don't have to? There's at least two times recently that accountability played a big part in my fitness. Both times were Saturday mornings that I had scheduled runs with others and both times I know without a doubt that I would have skipped those runs if I hadn't already promised others that I would be there. And then of course I can't discount the #1 accountability piece that I have built into my goals recently: Coach Tiffany. I know that I have to report back to her my results and it automatically makes me want to work just a little harder and not slack off as much as I typically do.

When you share your goals with others that have like-minded goals of their own, they lift you higher than you can lift yourself. And before you think that you have to tell every single person you know about your goals whether they support them or not, you don't. Accountability comes in many different ways:

BLOGGING: yup, I use this space to help keep me accountable. Knowing that I have put some hard and fast goals out there to any readers makes me want to work hard to not let those goals just fall by the wayside. Especially if I come back and provide updates on a regular basis...I certainly don't want to come back and here and be all "I suck". Yeahhhhhh, I really don't wanna do that. LOL

CHALLENGE GROUPS: there's pretty much a different challenge group for everyone's needs. I've been a member of Coach Jenny Hadfield's challenge group on Facebook for the past two years and that group is great for accountability! I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to slack off and I get on there and read all the posts from challengers talking about getting up and working out and it totally makes me want to too! Find a group, let them know your plans even if it is just the day, for the week or long-term - share your goals and then report back on how you're doing!

SOCIAL MEDIA: Will some people on your friends list get sick of hearing all about your workouts? Yes, possibly. But you know what - they can just keep scrolling on through and if they really want to they can even call it exercising if it makes them feel better about it. hahaha The reality is that you will also have a group of people that will cheer you on and keep you motivated towards your goals. And even if absolutely nobody says a thing - YOU KNOW that you said you were going to do x and you broadcast it to the world...so you know you need to do it, right? :-D

FRIENDS & FAMILY: If you have some friends and family that will back your plans, then by all means - include them in assisting you! I told you all a while back how I set up a plan with my husband to earn rewards for exercising. My sister and I, including my Mom for a large portion of time, have been workout accountability partners. We try to get together at least a couple times a week and have run several family workout challenges for points and rewards. And guess what, it WORKS. Because we are competing with each other, and encouraging each other, it makes it so much easier to keep going when we want to quit.

The reality is that when you feel like you have people "depending" on you, you work a little harder.

So find someone - whether it is in real-life or virtually, whether it is a single person or a whole group to share your goals with, your strategy for getting there, and then ask them to keep you accountable to those goals. Set up a PLAN for how often you will report in, how you will report in, and anything else that you need to ensure you will be checking in with your partner on a regular basis. And then be accountable to not just your person, but most of all, be accountable to YOURSELF. Stick with your goals, keep working your plan and you will find success!

Question: Who are you accountable to for your fitness and/or health goals?