Motivational Monday: Keeping Yourself Accountable with the Help of an iPod?

I’ve been consistently back in the gym and feeling as good as I have in a long time.

The other day my wife bought me an iPod Nano, the first one I have ever owned.

As a big Apple fan and soon to be physically fit dude, it was shocking to many of my friends that I hadn’t already owned one of these tiny gizmos.

Maybe I was just out of the loop, but I wasn’t aware that the newer generation Nanos have the amazing ability to help keep you accountable with your workouts.

You see, the Nano is not just a device to crunch out the tunes while you crunch your abs.

It has the cool ability to sync with many exercise equipment used by many gyms today.

I tried it the other for the first time and it works so seamlessly.

The treadmill has a plug that attaches to the Nano and lets the device record your workout while you listen to music. It’s freaking amazing!!

Not only does it record the workout, it lets you upload the information and analyze it when you sync up the Nano on iTunes, through the help of Nike.

You can then see a readout of your workouts and really see just how much (or how little) you are working that body.

It even has a pretty accurate pedometer you can use through the day.

On my maiden voyage with it, I actually found myself EXTENDING my usual workout! I went above and beyond because this little $129 invention is helping keep me accountable!!

I’ve always told you that you need to WRITE DOWN your goals and not just store them quietly within yourself. Writing them down makes them not only real, it speeds up their manifestation in the real world. It’s true!!

The Nano is a digital way of doing this. And to make yourself even MORE accountable, this iPod and Nike’s site let you upload your workouts for all to see on social networking sites.

That’s pretty darned cool if you ask me. The first step I took with my 40 By 40 (my successful plan to lose 40 pounds by my 40th Birthday) was to state it ON THE AIR as well as to family and friends so that I would be held more accountable for my goal! It made it real not only to ME, but to countless friends and family and fans.

And now if you’ll excuse me, I need to change into my gym clothes, grab my iPod Nano, and shoot off to the gym.

There’s pounds to be shed, muscles to be forged, and goals to be reached.

You obviously don’t need a Nano to get fit.

And there are many other devices and websites and cool apps for different brand smart phones that will also help you get to your fitness goals.

But we should take motivation wherever we can grab it!!