Balancing the Scale: "Have a Plan"
Coaching a youth baseball team, I often find myself pushing the boys to have one simple mindset: “Have a Plan.” Effectively, it means thinking about things before they happen. Before you step into the batter’s box, what are you expecting? Make an adjustment. On the field, before the pitch, what will you do if the ball is hit to you? Make an adjustment. You get the drill...
However, in life we are often overwhelmed by the pace & momentum of things. There always seems to be too much to do with too little time to do it. We give very little thought to having a “personal plan” to simply manage daily life, we just try to survive it. Contemplating this subject one early Sunday morning, it occurred to me that there are two key parts to this plan ~
- Physical Management Plan (PMP)
- Mental Management Plan (MMP)
The goal of the first is to take care of your body, and the goal of the second is to take care of your mind. Let me also just say that this approach to life begins when your formal education reaches some completion point. While you’re in High School or trying to finish College, life moves way to fast to hope for a balance. There is no balance. You’re on a treadmill and just hanging on & trying to make it thru.
Once you begin your career and you can get some kind of rhythm to your life, this approach kicks in & it applies to the vast majority of your adult life. I don’t want to dwell on time management, but let’s give that topic a little thought.
If you sleep (8) hours a day & work (10) hours a day, then (18) hours of every day are gone. I made the workday ten hours to accommodate for drive time or marginal overtime. Effectively it means you have (6) hours left to dedicate to personal discretionary activities, and what you do with these six hours will determine your quality of life.
Manage your "Six Hours" with intent; it's the most valuable, limited resource.
During these “Six Hours” you need to check a lot of boxes: spend time with a spouse, coach a team, play golf, watch Monday Night Football, visit your aging parents, help kids with homework, keep in touch with friends, manage finances, etc. There’s always more to do than time to do it. Make sure that you're getting the most out of how you spend these “Six Hours” - make sure that you have a plan!
The Personal Maintenance Program & the Mental Maintenance Program
The goal of the PMP is “maintenance” and slowing the pace of aging. That’s it. So set a goal of 30 minutes of exercise a day, at least 5 days a week. This is 8% of your valuable “Six Hours” invested in some form of physical activity. The long-term benefits of this personal investment are profound. Look around you and it becomes obvious who has a focus on this part of life. There is no greater return in any part of your life than one in your physical well being. There's no point in debating the downside of tobacco or the impact of alcohol with respect to how it impacts your life. The first is obvious and the second can easily be overdone. What’s the point of growing old if you can’t be healthy when you get there?
The goal of the MMP is the same, serving your long-term mental clarity. The brain is a muscle too, and it needs its own sort of stimulation to be active & healthy – so READ! Make a plan to spend at least 30 minutes a day, but read anything. Do crossword puzzle, solve a Sudoku, write a book or learn Spanish – any of these work because they all stretch your brain in new ways. Just do something! It’s only thirty minutes of your valuable “Six Hours.”
Combined, the total personal investment of (1) hour each day effectively leaves (5) hours to do whatever you want, with whomever you want. This is certainly an achievable goal. Adopting this approach you make yourself the winner.