Archives for 2009

”I don’t have the time to get in a really good workout.”

”My life is far too busy to fit in yet another commitment.”

We’ve all heard the excuses before, but these same people wind up contradicting themselves.  You’ve seen them.  The people who stand around a piece of equipment at the gym not using it as more than something to lean on while they socialize with everyone who will partake with them.  Their sole purpose is to talk to other people about whatever comes up.  

They seem to have ample time to socialize at the gym, but they just don’t have the time to lift weights.  They can chat with that hottie on the flat bench for hours, but they don’t have the time to get in a really good workout.  They can discuss the entire weekend of sports events, but they don’t have the time to fit in another commitment.

I’m here to tell you that we make time for the things that are important to us.  When we go into a gym and make time to socialize, but not to work hard, we are making a very clear statement.  We feel that socializing is important and getting into shape is not.  Argue if you like, but we definitely make the time for the things that are important to us while everything else suffers.

Write it down

Make it a point to capture everything you need to do in some kind of list that you can easily review on a regular basis.  There is something about the action of capturing open items that puts your mind to rest.  Instead of being crazy and  reminding you at 3 a.m. to do that important report, your mind leaves you alone because it trusts that you are on top of things.  The fact that you have your open items on a list and are reviewing them regularly puts your mind at ease.  This enables the mind to remove the clutter.

Complete your thinking

When you place an appointment on the calendar you trust that you will be there.  This is because your thinking on that issue is complete.  You’ve determined that you will be at a certain place at a certain time for a certain reason.  You have to do that same thing with everything you face.  Take the time to decide what you will be doing with the open item.  Make a decision.  Complete your thinking.  Once your thinking is complete your mind will continue to declutter itself.  It is an amazing thing and extremely powerful concept.

Delegate when it is right

Some things that face you are not for you to complete. If that is the case, do the smart thing and delegate them to someone else.  Find the right person and have them do the task at hand.  Knowing that the right person is on the job is also a huge stress reliever.  Don’t forget to give yourself a reminder for follow up later.  Always write down the date you delegated the item as well.

Matty’s Workout Log:

We are currently facing pretty difficult economic times.  Every single industry has been hit by the change in the economy.  It is a global thing.  Nobody is safe from its reach. 

The smart companies are paying careful attention to their bottom line while still attempting to grow.  It is at times like this that the companies who positioned themselves well will be able to buy up their competitors one at a time as those competitors face the harsh reality of their mistaken decisions.  However, those companies that did position themselves to get through times like this will be stronger than ever when the economy turns around.  They will have grown through the difficult times. 

Where are you positioned during the difficult times?  How have you positioned your nutrition when you are down and feel like eating the wrong things?  What have you prepared for yourself when you feel like skipping a workout?  Have you made the right decisions ahead of time?  Have you planned for these events?

Those of you who have planned and made the right decisions ahead of time won’t be fazed by anything that is thrown at you.  Tough times will seem like nothing because your advanced preparation will get you through.  If you haven’t done the planning or preparation, it is never too late.  Get started today.  Plan out what your workouts will look like for the next 6 months at least.  Conduct your Experiment of One and utilize the feedback you get to set up some fantastic nutritional cycles.  You will come out of the tough times way ahead.

Take out a pad and a pen and start your planning right now.  Do not put it off until later. You know you’ve been wanting to get your plan in writing, so get it done.  I have a plan myself.  It goes through to the end of 2009.  I have planned out cycles in my nutrition and I know what I plan to do for my workouts.  These things are flexible depending upon the results I am getting, but the plan is there.  All I have to do is fine tune them as necessary.  The hard part (all the planning and thinking) has been done.

Discipline and Making Decisions

When you have adopted a plan and are disciplined at executing the plan, decisions that come along are merely plugged into a formula and the right decision pops out the other side.  It is a fairly automatic thing.  The discipline part is where most people go wrong.

They say they are going to use a certain worldview to make their decisions, but they don’t stick to that worldview.  They veer off in the wrong direction and then wonder why.  The answer lies in their discipline.

As stated, when you have a plan and are disciplined and stick to it, the other decisions that follow are easy.  It just comes naturally.

Focus and Making Decisions

Sometimes the reason the discipline is lacking is because the focus is lacking.  I can tell you that I had discipline but at first I didn’t have the right amount of focus.  Once I got focused things started to happen for me.  I am on my way to a nice change in my body due to the extreme focus I’ve had recently.  It takes focus to maintain a high level of discipline.  Things change rapidly and unless you maintain focus you are going to get lost and fast.

Matty’s Workout Log:

It is the 21st day of 2009 and the focus I started the year with has continued.  I feel very much in control of work and family life right now.  The focus I’ve had has made it feel like I am aware of every single thing going on in all areas of my life.  It is an amazing feeling and very empowering.  When you know that you’ve captured all your open committments you don’t worry about missing something that is important. That makes you relax and your focus gets even greater. 

I have 3 more weeks of this body part focused workout series and then I am going to change things up a bit.  I will not reveal here what M6 will be about, but suffice to say that it will be different.  I am already experimenting with some slight nutritional changes (nothing too drastic).  I am not sharing what I am doing just yet because it is in the experimentation phase and I am not sure whether my analysis (prior to starting the experiment) is correct or not.  I don’t want to lead anyone down the wrong path.  Stay tuned for more at a later date.

Thanks to my friend, Marc David, for his recommendation of a site that allows you to keep your workouts logged using a smartphone or other mobile device.  Marc recommends Gymtechnik Mobile Fitness Tracking.  It looks like a great tool, but seems to have some limitations (unless I just don’t understand it completely yet).  I will do a review of this site in the near future.