EQUILIBRIUM

A common theme to our lives is the struggle to balance work, school, social life, family, friends, sports, health and fitness. You have more time than you think

As a friend, people tell me: “I’d like to get into shape, but I am too busy.”

As a coach, I hear: “I don’t have enough time to workout and achieve my goals.”

As an athlete, I am told: “It must be nice not to have a job or family so you have all day to train.”

The truth is I had to find a way to manage a full-time career while training for the Olympics, spend high-quality outdoor play with my two young children each day and read bed-time stories. It wasn’t always easy.

“The trick is you have to expend energy to create it, and make time to have time.”

There are 168 hours in a week. Estimate that you take 56 hours sleeping, 40 hours working, and train the same 20 hrs a week, as would an elite athlete. This still leaves 52 hours for you to get everything else done in life.

“There is a difference between being busy and having a full and productive day.”

Fitness is not something one can put-off, then easily catch-up with an all-nighter, like you would with work or school. Conditioning declines rapidly with time. Consistency is the most important component of athletic development and maintenance. That being said, today is always the best time to get back into a routine. Everyone struggles to balance life - to find equilibrium.

The reality is that work or circumstance often trumps a fitness regime even though it is less important in the grand scheme of things. After working a 9-hour day, you are tired, hungry, stressed. It is -20C, dark outside or raining. There is always stuff to do, a warm home, couch, comfort food and television tempting capitulation. How do you motivate yourself against such odds?

THE MECHANICS OF MOTIVATION

It is not a simple a matter of ‘willing’ yourself to be motivated.

Rather, one needs to establish the pre-conditions for a sustainable fitness regime, entrenching enthusiasm through a mechanical process - like a checklist.

“If you want something done, give it to a busy person, because they know how to manage their time.”

Do the easiest things first. And don’t skip the easy stuff because you think it is trivial. The more items you can check off, and connect in a support network, the richer the experience and more persistent your motivation.

So here is your checklist:

1. Get a good night’s sleep.

2. Know when to turn it off. That is your smart phone, work emails, television and social media.

3. Get outdoors to train immediately after work. Don’t dilly-dally, vacillate or pontificate. Do not settle in.

4. No junk hours training, make it count.

5. Be ruthlessly efficient in fitness workout. Have a plan in advance. Don’t sleepwalk through workouts. Write the workout down. Look forward to the exercise. Make it real and meaningful. Log performance thoughts accomplishments, improvements. Upload and review GPS and training statistics, keep a log! Record pre-race and post-race thoughts. Establish goals and key performance indicators. Measure success.

6. Do your creative thinking and problem solving on long slow distance exercise. Invoke your default network. Let your subconscious solve problems in the background.

7. Breathe consciously.

8. Nurture your support network of friends and training partners.

9. Stop self-sabotaging thoughts.

10. Start exercises with motivating thoughts and affirmations.

11. Stay hydrated during the day.

12. Have a good snack 1-2 hours before exercise, before you get home. Blood sugar levels affect energy, and mood. If you wait to get home to have a meal, chances are you will be home to stay.

13. Buy nice sports clothing and equipment for yourself.

14. Join one or multiple training groups. All your peers are having fun without you.

15. Read sports articles/magazines, watch videos, become a student of your sport.

16. Tell yourself 95% of the challenge is just getting out the door, 4% is warming up and 1% doing the actual exercise.

17. Wear comfortable (warm) clothing to training and for the warm-up and cool down.

18. Don’t go so fast on the warm-up that you lose the will to live. Do not exceed 50% of your race pace in the warm-up. Ease into exercise routine. If you go too hard too soon, you will crash physically and mentally.

19. Finish the warm-up, before you make your mind about the training.

20. Dress properly and comfortably. There is no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing choices.

21. Play music as you get ready to go out, or when it is safe during exercise.

22. Maintain a good diet. Eat frequently during the day rather than big meals.

23. Don’t think of it as a workout, but a fitness experience building or healing).

24. Convert anxiety to curiosity.

25. Immerse yourself in the pop culture of the sport.

26. Act like an athlete and hang out with others.

27. Be social. You are going to play with friends.

28. Take the time to enjoy the cool down.

29. Be consistent; set aside time every day for exercise. Exercise without guilt. Co-workers and family will respect a predictable routine.

30. Exercise enough that if holds significance in your life (Too little exercise loses critical mass and it becomes harder to maintain).

31. Make exercise a ritual.

32. Don’t binge train (hammer one day and miss days in a row)

33. Don’t go medium well all the time or you will plateau and get bored.

34. Try high-dynamic range training. Cross-train within your sport. For example running road, track, trail and cross-country from distances 1k to 50km.

35. Cross-train, mix it up throughout the season even if you have one primary sport. This will keep things fresh and prevent mental burn-out and overuse injuries.

36. Vary the pace in the session (warm-up, core training cool-down) and periodize intensity and duration from day to day, week to week, month to month.

37. Be in the moment. Sport is not work to complete so you can get back to something else. Keep your thoughts on making the exercise experience pleasurable, meaningful and real.

38. Write down your psychological, social, exploration, technical, and physical training goals for the day.

39. Have achievable micro-goals (for each workout, training week and month)

40. Create and aspiration board. Post it on your wall.

41. Commit to a competition calendar of races or events. Sign up early with a friend.

42. Include your partner and family in sport, whether that is just a yoga session or recover hike or bike ride.

43. Embrace the lifestyle of the athlete.

44. Identify with a hero and have a mentor.

45. Find good training partners.

46. Get a coach.

47. Welcome athletic supporters.

48. Join a team.

49. Train with someone slower. Train with some one stronger and faster.

50. Don’t be hard on yourself. Be realistic. Think positively. There is a rhythm to fitness. (Not ups and downs)

51. An easy-workout – isn’t. Call it a healing session or active recovery and treat is as such.

52. Health before fitness.

53. Plan a technique or education session or equipment preparation for when you are ill or injured.

54. Identify your sense-of-self with that of sport.

55. Use competition and competitors or a tangible/measurable challenges as positive pressures to train. You should never be too far from competition or testing yourself.

56. Never be afraid to fail. Plan for it. Laugh.

57. Don’t worry about outcome or performance. Just do what you need to do in preparation.

58. Cultivate a child-like sense of wonder, every practice is an adventure. Go exploring but bring food.

59. Let the terrain provide the challenge.

60. Belief gives birth to reality, visualize and dream.

61. Don’t be self-conscious of your body or performance. We all have different shapes and sizes. Hopes and dreams.

62. Use sports as an escape from work. View it is an opportunity to mentally reset, refresh, and revitalize.

63. Exercise outdoors in all weather for the clean oxygen and healing qualities of nature’s spa. Mud, rain, snow, wind or sun. Folks pay a lot of money for what you get for free. Take the time to admire the view from a mountain-top, stars, full moon, wildlife. Take a plunge into the cool water of the lake after a summers trail run… Go forest bathing.

64. If none of these brilliant ideas work, contact me and I will use soul-crushing guilt and peer pressure to out you, on social media.