Fitness goals & self-leadership with Ida Kjos
With a background as a lawyer, former General Counsel, and active social commentator, Ida raises topics such as gender equality, self-leadership, and the courage to stand up for yourself. Join us as we talk about self-leadership and fitness goals!
Ida Kjos is a former elite swimmer, lecturer, entrepreneur, and someone who loves to train to feel good. Ida and her best friend Andrea, with whom she also has a popular podcast, have just held a different and exciting workout session for us at Björn Borg.
It was an hour filled with reflection, meditation, blindfolded dancing, and of course some sweaty burpees – because what would a Björn Borg Sports Hour be without them?
Afterwards, we sat down with Ida to talk about self-leadership, her view on training, and her best tips on how to reach your goals.
How do you define self-leadership and how can it help us reach our goals?
- It is a difficult question, self-leadership is a very broad concept, but for me it is about the ability to lead myself as my whole self.
I think many misunderstand and believe that if you are not a manager, then you are not a leader, but all people are leaders and need to master leading themselves.
You lead yourself in the way you meet other people, how you approach meetings and communicate, you are always leading.
When you understand your capacity and the ability you have by taking responsibility for your own life, your decisions, and your attitude, then amazing things happen.
I would say it is the alpha and omega for living a true and happy life, and one of the absolute most important things to bring with you in life in order to constantly grow and dare.
How important are milestones on the way toward the end goal?
- Milestones are very important, partly to feel some kind of traction that you are moving forward all the time. Otherwise it can be easy to forget.
It is so common to compare and compare but forget yourself. Look back ten years with the knowledge of where you are now, and you carry a heavy backpack of experiences and skills.
It is important to see that things have happened. You easily become a bit blind otherwise, and maybe you do not acknowledge that you have reached important milestones.
Milestones also serve a function in self-leadership by keeping yourself accountable for what you want to achieve. It becomes a clear parameter that you are moving in the right direction and a barometer for how in sync you are with where you want to be.
Am I moving out of pure habit and not pushing myself enough? Am I focusing on and doing the right things? It serves many different functions and helps you move forward.
I usually work with OKRs, which is a method used by Google, where you set measurable milestones and have different activities connected to those goals. It gives you control and overview all the way.
The power of mindset
- How much does mindset matter when you want to reach a goal, and how can you get better at thinking in a way that actually helps you move forward?
- Mindset is very crucial but it is not always easy to tell yourself to keep moving forward. There are so many demands and expectations on you. There is so much you need to do but at the same time you need time to recover. You need to perform well at work, in relationships, and privately, it becomes a pressure.
You should not shame yourself if you do not reach a milestone. This is where mindset comes in, if you are set toward self-hatred or self-love. If you push yourself to a level where you are reckless, keep going even though you feel bad and have no fundamental love for yourself, it will not be good and will not help you forward.
Instead, it is about honoring yourself, your goals and your dreams. About self-love. To give yourself the conditions to reach your goals and give yourself permission to be worthy of what you want to achieve.
Do not set barriers in your mindset like “I shouldn’t”, “I should be satisfied with how it is”, etc. Dare to expand instead and see that you are worthy of everything you dream of, make sure to reach your goal.
It is about valuing myself and my life and getting to experience what I dream of.
About lost motivation
- Many people set goals, for example within training, but lose motivation along the way. What do you think is the key to staying consistent and actually achieving your goals?
- Very difficult. I had a period when I did not feel motivated and when I gave up, but I realized that motivation does not always have to be the driving force, because it will not always be there.
There are things that can help, like nice workout clothes to feel inspired. But it is hard to chase motivation. In the end it is about deciding and doing the work even when it feels tough and you do not really want to. Again it is about self-love.
If the goal is to take care of yourself and have a sustainable approach to training and health, it is not always the hardest sessions that are the right ones. Maybe it is not about doing five CrossFit sessions a week but about feeling good, not stressing, and avoiding training too hard. Sometimes a calm yoga class might be what you need instead.
Life is not always such that motivation exists, sometimes life is shit. But then it is about still showing up for yourself. Showing yourself that you keep your promises and your truth. You are worthy of feeling good.
It is not about waiting for motivation but about making sure you create it!
Top 3 tips to reach your goals
- If you had to mention what you think are the three most important things to keep in mind to reach your goals, within training and life in general?
Patience is a very important ingredient, especially in the time we live in now, where everything should go so fast and you should get quick results.
Development and change take time.
Not being so hard on yourself.
Life happens, it is dynamic. It is important not to beat yourself up if things get tough or do not go as planned.
To have alignment with yourself and your core and purpose, you need balance in other areas, otherwise it will not create a good feeling.
To feel motivated, engaged and willing to work, you need spiritual balance.Grit. There is no way around it. Pure perseverance.
What does training mean to you?
- Training means something different to me today than it did before. I used to be an elite swimmer, then it was one hundred percent performance. It was like that for many years afterwards in everything I did, it was always with a performance purpose, to become stronger, faster and more enduring.
But after I lost my sister, that part was reevaluated. I trained and worked hard while she was sick and was close to burning out. My body said stop.
Today training is a reward and a way to love myself. It is something that makes me feel alive, it can for example be to go out and run without a heart rate monitor or phone, just from the joy of moving, feeling my heart beat. Or going to classes and trying something I have not done before.
It can still be about performance too, like the mountain bike race I participated in last year, that I had not tried before.
I want to be able to join adventures, so having the base fitness to do that and handle challenges is important. Training should be a way to keep me alive, healthy and strong, and to enjoy my body.
Ida on motivating herself and planning the training
- How do you motivate yourself on days when you really do not feel like training?
- Given that training today is a breathing space and a way to be kind to myself, I do not push in the same way as before. I do not push my body as hard anymore. It is about training smarter and realizing that the training that happens is good training.
It can be hard to fit it in sometimes, with everything life entails, with work, family and children, and it needs to be fine that it does not work to get the workout in every time.
- How do you plan your training when life gets stressful?
- Training is dynamic. Some weeks it becomes more, which is wonderful. Some weeks it becomes less and that is completely okay. I try to schedule time for it but I am not rigid and I do not put it above all.
There is something freeing in doing what you feel like. I love training so much that it should never feel like punishment. I want to train to feel good. Some days maybe you did not make it to the gym but took a 30-minute walk to feel good.
I plan based on my life and training gets to follow along depending on where I am. I travel a lot for work and bring running shoes and often run when I am away. At home I go to the gym and do yoga.
Training is part of life but does not control life.
Fitness goals for 2026
- At Björn Borg we set Get Stronger goals every year within training. What workout and fitness goals do you have for 2026?
- I want to do another adventure like the mountain bike race in Morocco. It is mainly for the mind, to challenge yourself and what the body and mind can handle under extreme conditions. You can handle way more than you think!
I also want to run a marathon, I have run a half marathon before.
I am also learning to surf, that is a goal and something I will do more of during our training trip to Portugal this spring.
Riding and galloping on the beach is another thing I want to do more of.
The list continues, there is so much, who knows what it will be.
I love being free in my body and being able to do things that make me feel alive!
If you want to learn more about Ida Kjos, visit her website here.