Tag: exercise

Stacking wins to feel better

Do you agree that if you eat healthier, you feel healthier? Or if you are already a healthy eater, would you agree that when you eat poorly, you feel worse?

The same thing can be said about any good decision – it puts you in a better mood and a better position to continue succeeding…take exercise habits, for example. You may not enjoy exercising, but once you finish working out, don’t you usually feel better? Don’t you feel like you’ve accomplished something? That doesn’t even Include the actual health benefits. You’re also likely to feel less stressed, sleep better, and have an improved mood.

I like to stack as many wins as I can to start my day. It gets me off on the right foot and makes me want to continue building momentum. To do this, the first thing I do is wake up early. When you wake up earlier, nobody is vying for your attention. You have time to yourself. You can choose to get ready for your day, you can read and try to improve your mind, you can practice deep breathing or meditate, you can pray…You can do so many things when you wake up early and, usually, it will decrease the stress in your life. By checking off all of those items that you wanted to get done, you would also decrease the anxiety that you may suffer from.

On loving exercise

Once you get into it, there’s not many things better than exhausting yourself in some healthy competition with good company.

Think about it…you get to challenge yourself mentally and physically, you get to feel like you accomplished something difficult (because you did), and you get to feel companionship.

The endorphins that are released help you feel better throughout the day AND if you start your morning with exercise, it can help you build the momentum you need to make the lifestyle choices you desire.

Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” – Harry Truman

Why do you think this is? Well, it’s because if you’re taking the time to read, you’re doing the following:

⁃ Working on self-improvement/learning…books are condensed versions of life lessons taught by others more experienced than yourself (or at least with different experiences than yourself). If you can read about someone else’s failures, you do not have to suffer that same hardship and can propel yourself to greater heights more quickly.

⁃ Making your mind work…a lazy mind will not go far in life. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

⁃ Dedicated enough to read when you could be doing something easier (like watching tv or napping). Those with enough dedication, determination, and will-power to do what they know will help take them to where they want to go are far more likely to succeed.

– NOT all readers are leaders partially because it also depends on what you’re reading. If you’re reading romance novels, that is less likely to translate to a position of leadership compared to if you’re reading a book on business, relationships, leadership, parenting, etc.

Healthspan vs lifespan

Work to improve your healthspan, not just your lifespan.

Why would you want to live to be 100 years old if your health was poor for the last 30 years of your life? Is it really considered “living” if you can’t do the things you want to do based on physical or mental limitations?

“Healthspan” can be defined as the period of one’s life that one is healthy. Focus on eating the right foods, exercising your mind and body regularly, stretching, breathing, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep. And just as important as adding positive actions is removing negative ones too. There are things you can limit or avoid doing that can shorten your healthspan such as drinking too much alcohol, smoking, not wearing a seatbelt (if you get into an accident), over consuming food, etc.

Keep these things in mind everyday. Yes, you should enjoy yourself every now and then. And moderation goes a long way. But the more often you treat your current self, the more likely you are actually hurting your future self. Make conscious decisions on if your actions are worth the potential consequences.

What to think about when setting New Years resolutions

January 1st is here, which means many of you have already set (or will be looking to set) New Years resolutions. Resolutions get a bad reputation sometimes, but they shouldn’t. You should always strive to improve your life. What gets mocked though is how many yearly goals not only don’t get achieved, but are discarded/forgotten by the time February 1st rolls around.

So how do you avoid becoming a cliche by actually keeping your resolutions? Follow these 5 steps to have a greater chance at hitting your goals…

1. Figure out what your goal is in the 7 major categories of life. These categories are: family, relationships, physical, mental, spiritual, financial, and career.

2. After figuring out what your goals are, ask yourself when each goal should be realistically accomplished. Is it something that can actually be accomplished this year? Maybe it will only take 90 days or maybe it will take 3 years. Either way, if it’s important to you, don’t scrap the idea just because it doesn’t fit into a “yearly” goal timeline. Instead, break the goal down into milestones…in order to achieve Z, you need to get to Y by this date. But in order to achieve Y, you need to get to X by this date. Continue doing this until you have broken it down to what you need to do TODAY.

When each goal is broken down into manageable chunks of what needs to be done, always set a timeline for when you should hit each milestone as well (not just the overarching goal). This will let you know if you’re on track to hitting your yearly goal. If you reach a milestone date and haven’t achieved that milestone yet, it allows you to pivot early enough to still (hopefully) complete your big goal.

3. After figuring out what your goals (and milestones) are and when they can be realistically accomplished, the next thing you need is to have a powerful “why” behind them. Why are you resolving to achieve that thing? Why is that important to you? Will it make you feel better (intrinsic motivation) or is it to impress other people (extrinsic motivation)? Did you come up with it yourself or are you following along with what you think your spouse or your boss wants you to do?

You should be excited to get started, but as you begin to struggle, or when you don’t see results right away, you will be tempted to quit. The voice inside your head will begin to tell you that you didn’t really want that in the first place or that whatever your goal was isn’t really important. That’s just you giving yourself an out. But if you have a “why” behind the “what,” you will be more likely to keep at it when the times get tough. Your “why” should excite you and it should improve your life in some way.

4. Now that you know what your goal is, when you need to achieve it by, and why it is important to you, you need to figure out how you’re going to do it. Once again, it is best to figure this out by breaking it down.

First, you need to have a clearly defined time of day to work on your goals. Look at your goals daily and figure out the time you will work on your goal every single day. Will it be every morning when you wake up, as soon as you get off of work, or right before bed every night? Stay consistent with what time you work on your goals. Make this a habit!

Secondly, you’ll be more effective when you have a dedicated place to work on your goals. Where you will work on achieving your most important next action step for the day? Will your “sacred place” be at the gym, your office, a coffee shop, the basement, etc.? You need to define your work space. Especially now, with so many people working from home, you don’t want to blur the lines between when you’re supposed to be working and when you’re supposed to be spending quality time with your family. If you blur the lines, it will be too easy to not be truly focused on anything (making all aspects of your life suffer).

The last part of the “how” to achieve your goal is to understand what is the ONE thing you need to do today to get you closer to your milestone goal. I discussed this earlier when I mentioned breaking down each goal to the point of what you need to do TODAY to get you to where you need to be for the next milestone…What actions (leading measurements) are important to track every day that predict success for your achievement goals (lagging result)? What is the ONE thing you have to do that day to move you closer to achieving your next milestone? Remember, every journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step. You have to take small, consistent action to get to where you want to go.

5. Finally, you need to determine who can help you achieve your goals. This will probably take multiple people (probably at least one person for each goal). Is it a loved one who cares about that particular goal just as much as you do? Is it a friend or co-worker with a similar goal? Or maybe you find a group/community online to help encourage you when you’re down, but hold you accountable as well? No matter what the case, share your goals with others. Saying it out loud and writing it down means that you can’t hide it when you don’t achieve your goals. Take ownership of your goals, of your successes when you hit them, and of your failures if you don’t. The only person who can make you do this is you, but it always helps to have support along the way.

Keep these five things in mind when setting goals/resolutions. Of course, try to make them S.M.A.R.T.E.R. (specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time-keyed, exciting, and relevant) and, again, focus on WHY it is important to you. You need to have a deep intrinsic motivation to do something in order to keep pushing through the tough times.

Good luck and happy new year!