Health and wellness March 9, 2015 By
How many times have you started an exercise program and stopped? What were the barriers to your success?
Often, during wellness coaching sessions, individuals talk about the need to have accountability to successfully reach their goals. Part of my role as a wellness coach is to help keep our employees motivated, but with more than 800 employees, it’s impossible for me to hold everyone accountable.
Something that’s been very successful for our employees is buddy challenges. With these challenges, our employees hold one another accountable instead of needing a personal trainer or coach like me doing it. We ask employees to partner with another coworker, or we group employees together on teams. The Buddy Fitness Challenge is an example of one of those programs. Employees are challenged to meet the American College of Sports Medicine exercise guidelines for cardiovascular activity each week. Both buddies have to meet the weekly goal for three out of four weeks to complete the challenge. When employees complete the challenge, they earn points that go toward our wellness rewards program.
Even if you’re not part of a specific program like this, you can still utilize this concept.
- Pick a buddy who is just as ready and committed as you are to living a healthier lifestyle.
- Hold each other accountable by putting your workouts on your calendars, have scheduled talks about your progress and struggles, and motivate and encourage each other along the way.
- Increase the likelihood of reaching your goals by identifying both short-term and long-term goals. And, make sure your goals are SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-sensitive.
- Identify rewards for reaching your goals. The rewards can be big or small, shared or individual, but more importantly, need to be meaningful and contribute to your overall wellness.
Find a buddy and improve your health together!
