Today, this quote showed up in my social media, and it spoke to me: “You are stronger than yesterday because you chose effort over excuses and responsibility over comfort.”
Excuses. I got ‘em. I’m sure we all do. About 50% of the time, I wake up thinking of reasons that I should skip my daily work out:
- I didn’t sleep well.
- I’m running late.
- I don’t feel great.
- I’m sore from yesterday’s workout.
- Gosh, I work out every day; Why don’t I just take a break today?
I never consider not reading my Bible or not praying, doing the things that feed my spirit. But, for some reason, I’m often resistant to doing things that support my physiological health! I’m not sure why that is.
Nowadays, almost every time I have these thoughts, I push through that inner struggle, make myself get up and do the workout that I had planned. I ALWAYS feel great when I’m done and I NEVER regret making myself do it. And planning is KEY.
I used to decide on-the-spot what my workouts would consist of. That often resulted in low-quality experiences. Now, I make my workout plan at the beginning of the week and follow it closely. This makes getting started much easier. On Mondays, I do abs, legs and glutes. Tuesdays, I do arms and shoulders. Wednesdays, I do a high intensity workout. Then, on Thursday and Friday, I repeat the lower and upper exercises from Monday and Tuesday. I have my workout plan written down and as I complete each task, I check it off. This gives me a visual record of what I’ve accomplished, which for me is rewarding.
I also have other rules to help support my routine. I put my workout clothes out the night before. At a certain time in the morning, I must go put them on so I can stick to my workout start time. This means anything else I need to do before that time must be completed or stopped so my workout start time is not jeopardized. An alarm on a watch or phone helps with this.
It has taken lots of practice to develop and adjust these disciplines in support of my exercise habits. Years ago, I missed many days of workouts. Today, I miss almost none.
A couple of great books I’ve read to help me with this include The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, and more recently, Atomic Habits by James Clear. Both books helped me understand my own ability to develop good habits and let go of those that were not serving me.
I’ve also embraced the “start small” philosophy. Years ago, I would create ridiculously ambitious plans that were doomed to fail from the start. But, one day I learned about a quick read called Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise, which starts with a story about the “golden push-up.” This was all about the author’s decision to start the day with just ONE push-up, which was too small to fail. Then, one day he added another, then another. By the end of the year, he was doing many push-ups. It all started with the “one.” It’s amazing how quickly one can improve with this method.
Becoming aware of my tendency to make excuses has been a gamechanger. As soon as I notice one starting to crop up, I have the power to overcome it. It’s not perfect, but it is progress. And, over time, this makes all the difference.