This is going to be an exercise in reaching goals. I'm currently on Day 24 of the book PUSH: 30 Days to Turbocharged Habits, a Bangin' Body, and the Life You Deserve! by Chalene Johnson, the person who created the workout programs Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire, and ChaLEAN Extreme, to name a few. The purpose of the book is to help people become successful in reaching their goals by teaching them how to figure out what their priorities are, how to build their goals around those priorities, and how to create new habits and become more organized so that reaching their goals is guaranteed. Part I of the book is broken down into 30 days, with a chapter covering a different topic for each day. In Part II Chalene shares her exercise plan, and in Part III she gives some recipes. I'm going through the book day by day, so I'm still in Part I.
The focus of today's chapter is accountability. I'm sure this won't come as breaking news to anyone, but if you tell someone about whatever you're trying to accomplish, you're more likely to actually do it. However, Chalene wants people to take it one step further and actually make a promise to someone. Family, friends, co-workers, vague acquaintances, anyone who may for any reason be interested in your success. Her reasoning is that people don't like breaking promises. If you promise someone you'll do something, especially someone who is important to you, you will more likely than not do whatever you can to avoid breaking it.
But even beyond this, Chalene wants you to take your promise, and go public with it. As we all know, once something's out on the internet it's pretty much permanent. So, even though fully zero people read this blog right now, I felt like this would be a fitting place to make my public declaration. Here you go:
1. I promise, barring illness or injury, I will run the Honolulu Marathon in under 6 hours. (This one is kind of tricky, since my training guide says that setting a time limit for yourself may not be helpful and finishing should really be your only objective, but I do have a time goal and I promise to do my absolute best to stick to it).
2. I promise to lose 5% of my body weight by September 23, 2012 (Kevin's and my 1st anniversary!). For me, 5% of my weight is 9 lbs. As of now I still have 4 lbs to go.
So that's it! I will make the appropriate updates at the appropriate times so you can see how things have gone :).
I hated when people read my Am Sam blog and didn't comment because then i didn't know if anyone was reading it. But I'm reading yours, so I'm going to comment!
ReplyDeleteHow do you like the book? I'm whipping myself into shape, too. Using a few mid-year resolutions instead of a book, but I'll try anything to motivate myself. So lemme know if you think it's been motivational. It's been kind of a bad year for me thus far, and I recognize that some of that is stuff I need to change on my own and some of it is stuff to which I need to change my attitude and outlook. So here's to change!
As part of my resolution, I get to get some version of this tattoo when I feel that I've accomplished significant change in my life and managed to make my new priorities a habit. http://ginevra26592.deviantart.com/gallery/24277349#/d2dx653
Hey! I feel like I didn't know you had a blog, but if I had known I totally would have both read it and commented.
ReplyDeleteAnd I like the book a lot, actually. It's laid out in a really interesting and easy to read fashion, and I feel like going through the book has helped me prioritize and become more organized. I found it in the health and fitness section of my local public library, and I'd definitely say it's worth a read if you can find it.
Also, that is a cool tattoo. I can't wait to see it when you get it!