Men sana in corpore sano – Latin saying
Working out is great way to increase your productivity for many reasons. I know a lot of people make excuse that they “can’t find time” to work out, but one of main reasons why those people can’t find time for anything, is because they are energy drained. Our bodies aren’t designed to be that much static. If your work requires a lot of sitting, working out is essential for maintaining your health and mind balance, which will greatly increase your “I’ve got it done”/per hour ratio.
Many people ask me how can I be this fanatic about working out? They know I never miss a day. I developed a habit and it sticks. When you get into habit of working out, it’s really easy afterwards. Failure of developing a habit lies in simple things. Many people can’t achieve it, because they fail at:
1. Making a strong commitment – Everyone is going to tell you to make a strong commitment, but not many people will actually do what it takes in order for that commitment to grow. Take pen and paper and write down all the reasons why you should workout, than after that, write down the consequences of not working out and exaggerate them. Linking pleasure to your workouts is crucial, you should reward yourself right after you finish. How you gonna accomplish that, is up to you. But you need to link pleasure to train yourself, like we train dogs, that when you do something good, reward is coming by itself.
2. Continiualy repeating the process – until it becomes natural for you to do it everyday. Back in the days, while I was going to gym, I remember I was pushing trough hangovers and days without sleep, just in order to reach my goal, but what I was doing than, I was pushing trough my pain in order to make a habit. Creating a habit is critical, especially in first 3 months. First 21 days that everyone seems to be talking about will just make it easier for you when you continiue to do so, it won’t be habit right there, it’s just foundation.
3. STARTING SMALL – This tip could save a lot of failed New Years resolutions which make baby pandas sad 🙁 Don’t make baby panadas sad, by starting out small. If you haven’t worked out in years, you just can’t expect to do massive killer workout straight away. I know thousands of people who buy expensive gym membership, burn themselves down for quick results, don’t skip a day and than drop out after 2 weeks! Don’t maintain that unhealthy mentality which want’s to get results as soon as possible. You want gradual results that are going to maintain.
I wasn’t working actively out for last 4 months of 2010, I was sick and had good excuse, but when 2011 came around the corner, I knew it was time to change the rules of the game. I started out small, by simply doing warmup and 4 simple excersises the moment I wake up. I didn’t skip the single day. Now after a month of easy preparations I completed P90X training without breaking a sweat. Which leads us to the next tip:
4. Building up, one month at the time – Each month I introduce one new habit into my life and I start small, but with establish habits, I tend to add a little spice and delve deeper into them. This brings KAIZEN into the picture. KAIZEN is jaapanese expression for continual growth. Modern society and marketing have lead us to glorification of instant gratifications, quick and effortless solutions to common problems. And we bought into it, if you can’t achieve something in 30 days or less, it’s not even worth a shot. Don’t be another victim of marketing ploy and strive for continius growth of your already developed habits.
If you are really into productivity, you will start with fixing your body. It has “100 effects in 1 activity”, safely I can assure you it’s something that’s gonna change your mindset, outcome on the things and get you to have more focused energy. Stop looking for excuses, because they are so damn easy to find, instead start looking for reasons! And they are that many, that they just can’t fit in one blog post alone.
