Having Integrity With Your Health and Fitness
This simple, but profound, passage comes from one of my very favorite personal development books—The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. We are all familiar with integrity in general, but I want to talk specifically about having integrity with your health and fitness.
When we’re talking about being honest and having integrity with your health and fitness, we’re mostly looking at how you are dealing with yourself versus other people. Taking a very close look at how your words do or don’t connect with your actions can help you dial into where you really are.
Being Honest About Your Health and Fitness
Let’s start with honesty. What exactly is honesty? According to Stephen Covey, honesty is telling the truth and “conforming our words to reality.”
The following questions will help you gauge the level of honesty with yourself about your health and fitness:
- Are you being honest about what you really want to get from your fitness program?
- Are you really willing to do the work that the goals you set require of you?
- Are you committed or just interested?
- Are the New Year’s Resolutions you’re making realistic?
Having Integrity With Your Health and Fitness
Now, onto integrity. What exactly is integrity? Jim says it is “conforming our reality to our words” and “keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.”
Here are some questions that will help you gauge your integrity with your health and fitness:
- Are you walking your talk and taking actions that help you realize the vision and accomplish the goals you set?
- Are your expectations for your fitness program realistic based upon the effort that you’re putting in?
- Are you being consistent and doing something every day to accomplish your goals?
- Are you still putting in the same effort toward your New Year’s resolutions that you did when you started in January?
- Are you the master of excuses?
Do you have a habit of saying “Yes” when you really want to say “No?” and you really have no intention of following through on that yes? How often do you promise that you’re going to do something for yourself, but when the time comes you forget or make an excuse and flake out? This way of being—without integrity—affects all aspects of our life and impacts our ability to reach our goals.
Time for Raw Honesty
If you heard a lot of “No’s” inside your head when you went through these lists, do NOT get discouraged. Take a breath and keep reading.
When you are not having integrity with your health and fitness, you won’t get to where you wanted to be and you’ll probably be confused as to why. Not to mention frustrated. If you’re like most people, you’ll be blaming and making excuses – “(Insert name of fitness program) doesn’t work,” “I’m WAY too busy to plan my meals and do all that food prep!, “It’s too (hot or cold) to workout today,” “I deserve a break today.” (If you haven’t already read it, be sure and read my post on reactive versus proctive language!)
What I want you to do instead is sit down with yourself, preferably with pen and paper, in a time and place where you can complete a thought without interruption and go to a place of raw honesty. Take a quick little detour to my post on core commitments…it will be a HUGE help!
Now back to raw honesty…maybe before you were being overly ambitious. Maybe you were taking on someone else’s goals and calling them your own. Maybe you don’t quite have the energy or skills that you needed to reach those other goals. Maybe you have some emotional roadblocks that need some of your energy and focus.
No more lying to yourself! Bring your soul back into alignment…even if you’re less comfortable, feel bad, or disappoint yourself…and you will be amazed at the burst of energy that you feel. Trust yourself.
I don’t care what your goals are…REALLY! I just want them to be completely realistic and 100% inline with your actual motivation and capabilities right now. I’m not worried—and you should be either—that they aren’t big enough quite yet. Now, trust me…your answers to the above questions, as well as your motivation and capabilities, are VERY fluid and WILL change as a result of accomplishing your first realistic set of goals. There is plenty of opportunity for growing into bigger goals moving forward!
The key is in being and speaking from a place of centered wholeness so our words match our actions.
Now Take Action
Think about your integrity when it comes to your relationships [both personal and professional] AND your self. If you aren’t being honest and loving to yourself, how will you be honest and loving to others? If you don’t keep your word to yourself, how can you keep it for others? That’s why having integrity with ourselves—especially with out health and fitness—is NOT a luxury.
Now that you have your HONEST health and fitness goals written down, you’re going to start paying close attention so that your actions be totally congruent with your goals.
And YOU are the ONLY one who can direct your actions—Being Self Directed on Your Health and Fitness Journey
When your inited to that cocktail party, assess whether going will impede you reaching your goal or if you can do it and stay on track—and act accordingly. (If you feel pressured, I suggest you do some hard thinking about the people you surround yourself with as they have a HUGE impact on you whether you like it or not.) When your alarm clock goes off an hour before everyone else wakes up in the morning so you can get your workout done, remind yourself that being tired is a lot less painful in the long run than not prioritizing yourself.
Lose the guilt. You are worthy of your self care. You cannot give from an empty vessel, so it is also a gift for those around you.
Get Ready for Results
You will be SO much more successful at reaching your goals—not to mention happier—when your words match your actual intentions and your actions match your honest words. And, the more you practice honesty and integrity with your health and fitness, the more your reality will start to reflect your desires. This is what manifestation is ALL about!
Surround yourself with like-minded people and see examples of—and get practice—having integrity with your health and fitness! If you don’t already have a Beachbody coach (and you’re not one yourself), come join my 21 Day Fix Family accountability group on Facebook—no matter where you are in the world. Just click the button below:
