I’ve always wondered why Personal Training is such a huge industry, I mean, surely I can count how many reps I’m up to in my dumbbell squats, and I’m pretty sure I know when my 30 second rest interval is up following a sprint (thanks stopwatch).
And what am I paying you to do anyway?
To remind me to drink more water?
To always stretch after a strength session?
To not down too many Vodkas on Saturday night?
I know all of this. But every year, when Spring begins and I realise how fast Summer is charging towards me, and how badly I want to live on the beach in a Seafolly bikini with the body confidence of Miranda Kerr, I always decide that “I definitely, 100% need a personal trainer” – for the 1000th time.
But why do I feel that I need to splurge hard earned coin on a bystander to watch me burpee my life away?
Oh, just a little birdy I like to call, accountability.
The ‘A’ word is exactly what Australians spend $390m a year on. (Personal Trainers in Australia: IBIS World)
It’s interesting isn’t it, that we seek the need to feel obliged or answerable to an external source, in order to fulfill a task set before us – even if it is for our own benefit. But I guess it’s just the top bloke inside us, who wants to feel as if we have done someone a favour.
I don’t blame you! Think about when you were young, how you would help mum in the garden, or clean your room, and be so eager to tell everyone how you were SUCH an essential contributor to how lovely the roses looked, or how clean the entire house was. The same childlike attitude towards rewards, clearly still resides somewhere inside us.
It all comes back to our desire for gratification, essentially to feel good. We can’t shake centuries of hedonism! I mean you can try, just make sure you ‘shake it like a polaroid picture’, and let me know how you go!
And this provision of gratification in a positive way, is how a few of my pals at Bodytone Training are achieving great successes with every passing day. Let me explain.
The boys at Bodytone, are helping each client to reach their health and fitness goals at frighteningly spectacular speeds. It seems, they have understood the very essence of what Trainers stand for, and leveraged it to it’s maximum. It’s safe to say, that these lads are taking accountability to a WHOLE new level.
Think DAILY contact: routine phone calls, a simple text or even a sneaky snap chat, in which clients are made accountable, answerable, responsible and liable. Every indulgent confession, each smashing of a new personal best, it’s all out there, and after your daily update with the PT you’ll either feel rather guilty, or incredibly amazing for today’s effort.
So the take-away from this week? Get accountable!
Don’t necessarily get a trainer (although if you want one, give Bodytone a bell), hire a personal coach, enlist a Spanish tutor, employ a Yoga instructor and find a nutritionist. Just start enlisting those you already have around you.
Start using your friends and family. Share your goals and ideas, you will be surprised at what others share in return, how their unique perspective enriches your own, and how truly, “two minds are better than one”.
This is most important in terms of goal attainment, we sometimes need someone who is a “3rd party observer with absolutely no personal interest in the matter” (Viola, She’s the Man), to remind us of our progress, improvement and development.
So puh-lease start sharing your goals, talk about them, go crazy, get people involved. They will love it.
I’d love to hear how sharing your goal with others has helped you!