Having been in the fitness industry for almost 17 years now I have seen a lot change. The way we train, the nutrition regimes, the attire, the gyms themselves.
But time and again I have seen one thing that remains pretty constant.
And that is a significant number of people putting themselves last.
We have all either been there or have heard of someone else quitting the gym.
People start and finish up exercising and looking after themselves all the time. And there are all manner of reasons and also excuses.
Sometimes life will dictate terms to us that we cannot avoid. Severe illnesses, tragedies etc.
Most of the time though, we are pretty alright in most areas.
Now what I mean by putting yourself last.
Been a long day at work, it is a bit cold outside, maybe even drizzly. There is the kids training they have to get to, or an after work commitment that might take a half hour, and you only have shorts for the gym, you forgot your warmer clothes! Well if I have to go home and get them, I am not coming out again!
So you head home and sit back and catch some Netflix or scroll the socials before you have to pick the kids up, or get to that appointment. Then you pick up take away and have a wine or beer or two while falling asleep on the couch, after all you earned this! It was a hard day!
One of those days here and there, isn’t a problem once you are in the habit of getting to your exercise program regularly. It is when you start to look at them as the norm.
You start thinking well, I only got there last week two days, so if I have this week off, I will be fresh for next week. ANNNNND then, yep, you are putting yourself last. You are priortising everyone and everything before yourself. Kicking back on the couch day in and day out, running around after everyone else’s whim and desire, pumping alcohol into your body more days than not is absolutely NOT prioritsing yourself.
And then there is the oh, I will just start once project X is out of the way, or as soon as task Y gets more manageable I will get back to the gym. But after project X there is project K, H, Z and T! Task Y just seems to get bigger and bigger, so I will keep putting off me, I will keep shunting myself down the order for these tasks, these projects, these… things, all these things.
And hey, all these things are more important than you aren’t they?
I want you to ask yourself that.
All these things you do, can’t wait an hour some days? Can’t be managed while you get in some exercise? Can’t be delegated?
Because realistically I have seen people so much busier and more committed to outside factors than myself absolutely and utterly get their exercise done more days in the week than they don’t. In fact some of the busiest people I have met, are the most vigilant when it comes to themselves.
Single parents.
Business owners.
Shift workers.
People with three plus kids and unwell relatives they are caring for.
People that are on every committee known to man and have kids in every sport!
And they do it because they know that if they actually become unfit, unwell, even moody, then they can’t get everything else done.
It is never about oh ah I have to wait until I [Insert any specific thing that you theink gets in the way of other parts of your life] is done. It is that you are actually putting allllll of the other things before yourself.
I don’t have time!!! I have heard this more than any other thing in my career. And I used to really be empathetic towards people because I genuinely believed they didn’t have time.
Then I began getting people to time audit themselves.
They actually found they had time to do all of the things they felt obligated to do AND to do the things they wanted to do.
Yes, motivation will ebb and flow, there will be days you are tired, and days that just seem full on. Those are the hard ones. And if you let them get on top of you, well, that is what you have done.
To sum up, I am saying I would love for you to do a time audit, look around, what can you trim, what can you keep? And then, put you as number 1, yep right at the top for 3 to 5 hours in a week. That is all, 3 to 5 hours.
And then ask yourself, am I worth 3 to 5 hours a week of my own time?
Pretty sure I know what the answer to that may be.