Real Life Wellness: Accountability
By Bill Hemmer
If you have read my last two articles, you know I have been talking about you becoming your own doctor and creating the environment for you to produce your own health miracle. As long as you have breath in your body, the good Lord has given you the ability to heal your body. It is time to take back control of your health and harness your God-given power.
Once you have decided which of the four areas of health you are going to focus on first (eating, attitude, community or movement), then it’s time to write your personal health miracle down in the form of a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timed) goal and attach an emotional anchor to it.
If that wasn’t tough enough, the next step is even harder. You have to tell somebody about your health miracle, so they can hold you accountable to get it done. Everybody needs support. No man is an island. Even the most highly paid athletes and executives in the world all have coaches or people they are held accountable to. You can’t live in a vacuum. You need to be able to talk about and bounce ideas off someone.
It doesn’t have to be an official healthcare provider. It could be your spouse or your best friend. But, it does have to be someone who knows how important this is to you, and you will be able to accept constructive criticism from. They can’t be an enabler or let you slide when you don’t do what you say you are going to do. They must be able to listen, then provide you with a different path to reach your goal, or at least support your efforts as you work through the difficulty on your own.
Another aspect of this is you need to surround yourself with people who are going to be in agreement with you achieving your health miracle. Your environment will be the deciding factor if you reach your goal or not. For example, if your health miracle is to lose weight, you can’t surround yourself with people who are not eating healthy and understand that food is medicine. Every bite you eat either turns on or off different genes that will bring you closer to or farther away from your miracle of weight loss.
Your environment 24 hours a day should be moving you towards your goal. I’m not saying you have to ditch all of your friends and family that aren’t eating, thinking or moving the way you are, but you need to stay conscious to the fact that they are not on the same journey you are. You have made the commitment to yourself and others to reach your goal. You don’t have to beat them over the head with what you’re doing, but you also don’t have to participate in what they are doing either.
You will be amazed at the positive effect you will have on the people around you when your energy, joy and health begin to return.
Wait and see!