Have you ever thought about becoming a lawyer?
Or an FBI negotiator?
I know, weird questions from me this week. Bear with me though!
All of us can be the best of lawyers and negotiators, we have all done it, haven’t we?
‘Oh it is cold and I need to heat the house up, I can go to the gym tomorrow.’
‘I ate so many Tim Tams as a kid and it never had an effect, I can grab a couple of packets today.’
‘One more episode tonight, I will still get five and a half hours of sleep before the alarm, I can catch up on the weekend.’
Those are the type of things we can negotiate ourselves into or out of with all the skill and ability of a highly paid lawyer or the seasoned FBI negotiator that works in life and death scenarios!
Each and every single day we meet our inner lawyer and they can be so very persuasive!
The arguments they throw at us can seem so very convincing, and so very justified.
I know I have negotiated pretty hard when it comes to sticking to my plans. And I don’t mean only with the gym or food. I mean socially, at home, with study, with work. All of those have come under attack from ‘QC Jim’ and his very persuasive techniques of having me not do something I truly want to and truly know is so very good for me!
Having been running the box now for a decade and a half I have fallen victim to my own negotiator and put myself way down the order in the past. It can all be a little too convenient being at the gym all day!
- Writing this right now I am at the gym
- Putting things away on the gym floor, yep here too.
- Analysing and writing programs for everyone here, also right here at the gym.
- Doing social media posts, talking to prospective new members on the phone, putting people into our software systems. All of these things I am right here doing.
And all of these things can be so very easy to keep going with, to just add on another 10 mins to get a little more done. The thing that in the past that would get put back would be my workout.
- I will do it at 8am, after I have done the blog. Oh I went over, it is OK, I have time at 11.
- Someone calls me right at 11 and I get on the phone. Easy! I will just do it with the 1:05pm session!
- The coach calls in sick. Well I can jump on it right after the class. Hang on, I am hungry, need to eat at 2!
- Cool, 5:15 it is! Someone wants to book a consult then! OK, I can shift it and do it at the end of the day.
- End of the day. Exhausted. I am going home! Will workout tomorrow!
That was me a few years back. Would put it off and off and off. And it didn’t get done.
The world we live in now all of us have schedules and timetables and calendars. We use them to book ourselves in etc. This was the tool I turned to.
I began by booking my workout times in. And sticking to them.
If you want an appointment with me and you try and book a time I am working out, I won’t move it.
You have probably heard me talk about being flexible, and yes I still am. There are some days where things outside your control can have things all have to be shifted. I think back to the bushfires in 2019, there was no way to change what happened a couple of afternoons there where we had to close as the smoke in the air was not safe to be in let alone workout in.
So flexibility is required no doubt. But you have probably heard that hypermobility in people can be a problem? So too is ‘hyperflexibility’ with you and your health!
There are things on my calendar that are priority one. Two of those things are time with my family, dinner, weekends etc, and my exercise time.
Those are non-negotiables. ‘QC Jim’ no longer gets a say in those, he doesn’t get to negotiate. I say to him, ‘nah mate, pick any other time’.
I want you to try something this week. And it can be a roleplay. It can be in the mirror to yourself, it can be while you drive to work or to pick up the kids or on your way to uni or school. I want you to try this sentence on for size.
“Sorry I am not available at that time.”
Bonus points if someone asks of your time and you look at your calendar and have an important booking for yourself and you say it to them.
Now that important booking may be anything. As long as it is important to you.
Mowing the lawn? Yep!
Getting your nails done? Also yep!
Getting a massage? Absolutely!
Watching your kid play soccer? Goes without saying a resounding yes!
Going to the gym? You know I am saying of course!
Like I said, it can be any appointment that is important to you.
If it is in your designated time, not designated work time, not designated volunteer time, not designated club time etc, designated you time, then don’t negotiate, don’t let your inner lawyer win this one.
So try the line on your inner lawyer too, especially if that inner lawyer says ‘Hey, sit on the couch, browse Netflix and grab some snacks instead of doing [insert any important activity to you here], you can always do it later’ Tell them the truth. There may not be a later and that is my time, not yours inner lawyer!
Try it this week and tell me how you went. I want to know how it felt. So shoot me a message and let me know!