Picture this: 

Your day begins at 6:30 am. You’re tired but the day awaits so you drag yourself out of bed and get going. You make breakfast for the kids, pack their lunches, tell them a hundred times to get going so they’re not late for school, break up six fights, drive them to school and come back home to collapse on the couch for a few minutes. The rest of your day consists of: cleaning the house, doing the laundry, grocery shopping, rescheduling 3 doctor’s appointments, making dinner, picking up kids from school and driving them to after-school practice, helping with homework, bathing kids and getting them to bed at a reasonable hour.

Oh, did you have time to workout?

I know, it’s tough! Life is busy and it can be hard to fit in an activity that requires energy that you honestly don’t feel like you have some days. This is where accountability comes in. Following are some ways that setting up a system of accountability for working out will help you be successful.

• Accountability will help you define goals. Nothing helps get you motivated like a plan. Take a moment to think about what your fitness goals are and use the SMART method: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Here are some examples of SMART fitness goals:

1. I will lose 7% of my body weight in 3 months.
2. I will walk 5 days every week for 30 minutes each.
3. I will drink water instead of soda every day this week.
4. I will bring my lunch to work instead of eating out 4 days this week.

• Accountability adds psychological motivators. If you ask a friend to be your workout partner, it will be harder to cancel because you know you’ll be letting her down. If you join a fitness group on Facebook where you share your results, you will feel the motivation to keep pushing forward so you’ll have an awesome record to share with the group. If you join a walking group that meets every Tuesday at 6 pm, you know they’ll wonder where you are when you don’t show up. Add these various pieces of accountability into your life and you’ll reap the benefits of consistency.

•  You’ll add a cheering squad. When you share your efforts and goals with others, they can help you celebrate your success. Because when you achieve your SMART goal that you set, it’s much more fun to share the news with others. In your office, how about setting up a workout challenge? This article has many different examples of how fitness challenges can be set up within companies in order to inspire healthy living among employees.

• Accountability will help you be successful. The biggest reason to add accountability into your fitness program is that you will reach your goals faster and be successful! Nothing is more demoralizing than starting and stopping a new fitness program. We start feeling like, why bother? Stop the cycle and make this one count. Add in a support network through a friend or online group, share your specific goals with them and then have them hold you accountable. The consistency of a good fitness program will help you feel energized, stronger and more confident.