You might be wondering why I’m writing about exercise. After all, this is a you-deserve-a-kick-ass-life blog, not a health blog.
But you can’t separate mental health from physical health – even though our medical system would like to convince us otherwise. And for me, daily exercise – in addition to its many direct physical and mental benefits–creates a discipline that translates into the rest of my life.
If you get up every morning and go on a jog, or swim, or bike, or whatever, and you do it consistently, it gives you the mental fortitude to be able to say “Yeah, that big project, or that huge, unreachable goal…I know I can do that. I’ve already got that discipline. Because I work out.”
But Erin, you say, I don’t have time. I have seven children and we live in a shoe.
Well, let’s pretend that the little old lady who lived in the shoe was also a daily Cross-fitter. Here’s what she would tell you about herself and her fellow exercise friends.
They are not different from you.
People who exercise every day don’t have some magical willpower gene. They weren’t born with better genetics, and they didn’t necessarily grow up playing sports. (One of my favorite monikers for this is the “Adult Onset Athlete”.) They might not even have had parents who worked out on a regular basis. The only difference is…they get up and do it.
They embrace exercise of all kinds.
Exercise doesn’t have to be running on a treadmill. A brisk walk outside is great. A corollary of this is that you don’t need to kill it every time you go out there. In fact, if you’re just starting out – take it easy. Do ten minutes instead of fifty. You want to want to go back out there tomorrow. (I know this is hard for us Type A’ers!)
They honor their commitment to themselves like they would a meeting with their boss.
Assign a time for exercise (see number six below), and then act as if that time is set in stone. Does that mean that you’ll never miss a day? Nope. Or have the occasional – very occasional – thing that comes up? Yep, that sometimes happens. But daily exercisers have made a commitment to themselves to let nothing stand in their way. Exercise becomes a priority.
They hear the excuses in their heads – and they do it anyway.
There will always be chores, work duties, fires to put out, kids to feed, and people who need your attention. You will always be too tired, the bed will always be too nice and comfy, and you will always prefer to sleep in rather than get up and exercise. But do it anyway. (And try not to look at your phone in the mornings!)
They know that “Something is always better than nothing.”
Even if you only have twenty minutes to spare today. Or even just ten. You can still get outside and take a short walk. And maybe you’ll find that that ten minutes somehow stretches into twenty or thirty, after all.
They do it in the morning, before anyone has time to hijack their day.
Research shows that people who exercise in the morning are able to sustain their exercise habits more easily. For me personally, this is the only time that it gets done. Who wants to come home from work and then go work out? And yes, it’s hard. In order to have a morning workout, I have to trade off mornings with my husband in terms of who’s in charge of packing lunches and getting the kids off to school. But we make it work because having two kids is not an excuse for me.
The keys to a daily exercise routine are consistency and discipline. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, as long as you’re getting out and doing it. The more you flex that muscle of self-discipline, the stronger it gets when you need it to do the heavy lifting in the rest of your life.
And then you can tell that stretch goal: yeah, I got this. Because I work out.
What things are holding you back form working out? What tricks do you use to keep you motivated when you do find the time? Let us know in the comments!
