Why We Love Accountability Partners (And You Should, Too)!

Everyone needs consistent human support when attempting difficult physical activity. Before I got a personal trainer and started attending scheduled classes at the gym in 2014 I just wandered over to Lakeview YMCA 2 or 3 times a week and completed my old college lifting workout. That's right, I did my old college workout for eleven years because I didn't know what I didn't know. It seemed like a totally awesome workout because it was totally awesome in college.

After all of those years of doing the same old workout at the gym, I got a trainer to teach me better ways to get stronger. Then I found a group of people from a class with similar goals who would ask after a 5K run "what was your time?," or "did you do the training program?" It reminded me of softball and the rapid improvement I achieved from being on a team.

I realized then that when I excelled at something there was always another human or group guiding me along. It wasn't simply an app or a piece of paper or even something I followed from the internet. There was a team of accountability partners physically high-fiving me when I accomplished something I said I'd do and and pushing me when I fell short.

Who is your daughter's pitching accountability partner? Who holds her to her word that she will practice? Who is your accountability partner for going outside and catching for her 4 days per week? It means the most coming from a teammate or a peer so we, as coaches and parents, have to not only teach kids how to follow through on their promises, but also be an accountability partner for someone else. In other words, we need to teach girls to be leaders.