The holidays are coming up and we always, myself included, have a tough time being accountable around the holiday season.
It starts with Halloween. We buy a huge bag of candy which about a quarter of it gets handed out so of course…we end up eating the whole damn thing! Next is Thanksgiving which is just a nightmare and might put us in a weird mindset! Lastly we have a busy December of parties, drinking and eating out. It’s a mess.
During the last three months I don’t necessarily hold myself to a strict diet. My calorie intake stays the same. I try to eat as much as I can for weight gain and muscle mass. My lunches are set considering I use a meal delivery service and even dinners are pretty healthy and regulated. The desserts are where I fall off!
So today I share two methods to hold yourself accountable this holiday season (not just regarding diet)!
The first is actually not a way to hold yourself accountable but a different perspective shift.
#1 Go easy on yourself!
If you want to eat ice cream, eat ice cream! If not, then don’t!
The biggest takeaway is that I try not to be too hard on myself. The more pressure I put on myself the more likely I will fail. Everybody has fluctuations in their willpower and accountability and the biggest thing you can do for yourself is recognize that. Begin to take small steps forward.
#2 Implement three action steps
Step 1 is to have an accountability buddy.
Ideally somebody that’s not family. It could be a simple text message, phone call, slack message or a combination of those where you check in. This person ultimately will hold you accountable and see if you held true to what you promised!
Step 2 is setting up a negative consequence.
If you break your habit (Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for example) what will happen? Ultimately you can create a negative consequence such as a donation that you make to an organiztion that you really really don’t want to make that donation to! I’m sure there’s a few evil organizations that come to mind
Step 3 is to have an external reference.
For me this is the Ritual Design planner. The planner keeps me accountable by showing me! If there are blank pages, that means I’m not following my Ritual Design and if that is the case, there are more chances that I can slip up. This external trigger might be different for you but something that is sitting out in the open that reminds you to hold yourself accountable.
If you’re looking to try out the Ritual Design Planner, you can pick one up on Amazon, or find a bulk deal here!
There are many more ways to be accountable to yourself but these are a few that we discuss today! Thanks for listening!