3 Strategies To Take Ownership Of Your Health

Linette Teerlink • April 7, 2025

There's no way around it.

If you want to truly get into amazing shape, you will need to take complete ownership of your health.

 

You will have to say goodbye to the days of blaming your busy schedule for missing workouts and pointing the finger at your willpower for not being able to resist that second piece of cake.

 

Because at the end of the day, your schedule and your willpower aren't the ones that suffer, it's only you. And because it's only you that suffers the consequences, it needs to be you that carries out the actions required to avoid the suffering.

 

Below are (3) common examples you may be familiar with when it comes to avoiding ownership and how you can avoid them in the future.


1. "I Don't Have Enough Time"

This is the classic example that I hear over and over again from clients I meet with at Progressive Athletics.

 

Here's the reality.

 

It's not that you don't have time. It's that you aren't making time for it.

 

If it's something that's genuinely important to you, you will find time for it. Aside from the rare occasion where you are working from sun up to sun down, nobody is so busy that they can't set aside an hour in their day to improve their health.

 

Grab a journal and document how you spend your day for an entire week. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, for 7 days. Write down every single thing you do. I guarantee you will be able to find time in your day to dedicate to your health. It may require sacrifice in the form of only watching an hour of TV instead of 2, but the payoff will be worth it.

 

So next time you find yourself blaming time for not being able to get in shape, make sure you realize that you are in control of your schedule. Not the other way around.


2. "It's Too Expensive"

While there are certain financial realities for most of us, these realities have little to do with your health. If your dream home is 1,000,000 but you can only afford the mortgage on a 300,000 home that's one thing. But to say that you can't dedicate a couple hundred bucks a month to your health is placing the blame on your wallet.

 

This excuse is very similar to the time excuse in that you just need to shift your values around. 

 

We spend money on things that are important to us.

 

For instance, if you were to look at your bank statement from last month would you be able to move some things around that could have potentially paid for your gym membership and healthy foods?

 

Maybe you went out to eat a few times totaling $200.

 

Maybe you bought a couple of things off of Amazon that are just sitting in your closet totaling $100.

 

 Maybe you have subscriptions that you never use totaling $40.

 

Everyone's bank statements are going to look a little different, but the point is, the money is there. It's just a matter of putting it toward what you value.

 

So the key here is to value your health above eating out and buying useless stuff on Amazon.

 

Because spending money on your health is an investment that pays back dividends. Buying stuff on Amazon doesn't, unless you're buying their stock :)

 

So again, realize that you control your wallet. Not the other way around.


3. "I Can't Get Motivated"

Do not give ownership of your health to your motivation.

 

There is this misunderstanding that in order to accomplish something you need to feel motivated when the reality is the opposite.

 

You may feel an initial burst of "motivation" that springs you to action from time to time, but that isn't motivation, that's excitement.

 

True motivation can only be produced by taking action.

 

The action comes first, the motivation comes second.

 

While there is no super secret strategy to force yourself to take action, there is one thing that can help tremendously for most people.

 

Working out with a group. Peer pressure doesn't disappear when you leave high school. It's part of our nature. We are pulled to act and think like the groups we spend time with.

 

So if you end up connecting with a group at your gym, you are much more likely to stay motivated working out. This is why group classes have become so popular.

 

On the flip side, if you end up connecting with a group that goes to happy hour every day after work, you're likely to end up in the happy hour crew.

 

There's nothing wrong with either of those, it's just a matter of which is going to help bring you closer to your goals. 

 

So while you can't control your motivation, you alone control your actions and your actions are only ever bringing you closer to your goals or further away.

 

So next time you find yourself blaming anything other than yourself for not being where you want to be with your health, remember this.

 

"You can have results or excuses. Not both."

-Arnold Schwarzenegger 



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