Being Accountable

Meet my team. Well to be more accurate one of my teams. You see, all of you are really part of my team. You are the team that keeps me accountable, that keeps me motivated. That keeps me honest. That keeps me getting out of bed. That keeps me from taking the “easy” road instead of pushing forward even when I simply don’t feel like it.

Ken, Heidi and now Lane are my early morning cycling buddies. Ken even joins me once a week for yoga, which we both have a bit of a love/hate relationship with at times, but we know it’s good for us. Heidi and I carpool to Bikram Yoga once a week to sweat it out and really push once ourselves. And because we do this, we are all better for it. We may slack one day, but any more than that and we nag each other into being there. Knowing someone is going to be waiting for you to carpool or at the corner on a bike is great motivation to not be the slacker.

Accountability is a big part of achieving success in every aspect of life. We should be accountable in our work, in our health, in fitness, in faith, etc. If you are a good leader, you keep your people accountable for their projects or whatever purpose in which you have them engaged. If you are part of a team, to be successful and progressing you should have goals and means by which you report in to be accountable for your efforts. If you are running your own business venture, you are accountable to yourself, those that depend on you, your clients and future clients, and more. Keeping that in mind helps frame your efforts and for me it helps my focus and determination.

So being accountable has been a big part of my effort to be healthy and to stick with my initial and evolving goals to better myself and in this fight against my foreign invader. That’s a big part of why I chose to share some of my experience online, for some public accountability. To share in the effort, in the successes as well as the difficulty. It’s all part of getting there and avoiding falling back into old, bad habits.

No shoes, don't care. Figured it was better than wearing cycling shoes in the weights area.

When I first made the decision last summer to reboot my health and weight, I set daily goals and a long term weight loss number, but mostly I was accountable to myself. I committed to lose at least 30 pounds as part of a product test group, but really that was secondary to desire I had to get back on track in many aspects of life. So I made my goals public, with some friends but also mostly with my family. I enlisted their help to keep me accountable. To keep me from being weak on days when it was tough. To call me out if I started to get off the plan I’d set for myself. And mostly, just to be a good support with some encouragement.

And as you know, it worked.

I lost the original weight I wanted to and quite a bit more. Then I transitioned into new goals for a more active lifestyle to enjoy my regained enjoyment of fitness activities and to maintain my weight loss. Part of that time was my buddy Ken inviting me out to do some cycling, which now is the backbone of my fitness efforts.

Then came the diagnosis.

Boy that sure changed some perspective. But in reality it just boiled down to setting some new goals and leaning again on that accountability to myself and my team. I still lean on those friends and my family to keep me going. I still rely on all of you that take a few minutes to read my periodic updates and rambling thoughts and offer your words of encouragement and additions to my thoughts. I still try to be as independent as my personality wants to be, but I realize now more than ever I am fortunate to have an amazing team. My army of support that is going to help me beat this thing...and more.

So once again, thank you. Thanks for all you do, say, or even just think about us. I think about you all as well and the many stories you’ve shared of your own personal battles both past and present. Together we are a support for each other and we push each other to better levels.

Share your goals, whether online, with friends or family, or even in a journal. Make it real. Put it into writing and hold yourself to it. Check in and assess where you’ve done well and where you need to improve. Be honest and share your failures (opportunities to learn) right along with your successes. It’s all part of the process. But most of all, be accountable for your actions and your own growth. You really will be better for it.

The Cancer Report

Oh, and on the cancer side of life, it’s been pretty much the same. Mostly pretty good days with some that are more of a struggle. Every day I’m a bit more tired than I’d like which makes my days shorter as I need some additional sleep, so my productivity time suffers. That means less project work accomplished, so income generation takes a hit. Just the way it is. I am happy to say that most of my abdominal pain has subsided in the last few weeks. It’s not completely gone, but much improved. I'm not sure if that's from a slightly softer core strength, some dietary changes, or if the tumor is reacting to the treatments. I won't know for a couple more months as they don't do a new CT scan any sooner than that. I'm cautiously optimistic though that it's a positive sign. I’m sleeping a bit better overall, but that’s still my primary area I’m working to improve.

So there you have it. Hope you all have your teams of support. Whether they be teams of one person or many, they are wonderful to have. Maybe you haven’t even thought of it that way before, but if you take a moment to think about who you might consider in your various teams I’m sure you can identify them.