Accountability

By: Wes Smith

We have all heard of the word accountability, but how many of us actually practice it in our lives?  I could name hundreds of ways that we can apply it throughout our lifetime to save us from going down the wrong path and lots of heart aches that those paths lead to. However, there are times when those bad choices teach us the best lessons in life (as long as we learn from those experiences). Many areas we should practice accountability are obvious; religion, marriage/relationships, family, finances, jobs, school, and so on and so on.  While views of each of these are all over the map, I’m going to stick to the accountability of our personal health for this blog to avoid controversy as I believe this is a pretty easy one to agree on. In addition,you’re most likely reading this on CFMK’s link so you have some interest in your health.

The dictionary defines accountability as an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions. Easy to understand, right?  Own up to your actions whether they are big or small. Staying with the health theme from the CrossFit side, this can be questioned in many ways. How is your diet? Are you consistent with your WODs? Are you giving it 100% everyday? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you being truthful with your rep count? Are you concerned with the standards of a particular movement? Do you mobilize? Do you track your wods, loads, diet?  Okay, so CrossFit by itself is an endless conversation. You may have answered yes to all, some, or none of these questions, but who are you answering to? If you are answering to only yourself, you’re just talking to the two imaginary “mini-yous” on each of your shoulders. We all know how that conversation goes; no one will find out if I shave a rep here and there off of the wod today, or I can eat that second piece of cake when no one is looking.

If this is you, and you really want to end playing the game of CrossFit and make it something that can completely change your life, find an accountability partner. We all do CrossFit because we want to better our lives through health, fitness, quality of life, looks, and of course bragging rights. However, if you can’t back up that bragging when called upon, it’s going to be embarrassing. Diet, consistency, honesty, will-power, commitment, and passion all go hand in hand in the sport of CrossFit.  Let’s face it, CrossFit is not a cheap hobby, if you are going to invest the money into it, go all in and make it work for you. An accountability partner cost nothing. In fact, you can gain some valuable friendships out of it. It’s good to pick those partners that are not afraid to tell you the blunt truth.  You don’t want someone that will accept your fault of eating a whole box of cereal in one day, you want that person to make you feel like crap so you don’t do it again. Not only from a nutritional side but also for wod performance. At the same time, that person has to know where boundaries are between the two of you and how to push the right button to make it stick.