by Jon Gustin
“I don’t have time to workout.” I cringe just writing that quote. It’s such a negative excuse and it’s almost as if someone gave up on even trying. Look, everyone on this planet has a 24 hour day and it’s completely your own free will on how you use it. If you are a person that uses this excuse frequently, I want you to ponder this question. There are many deadlines in your life. Planning for parties, events, weddings, deadlines at work, vacations and the list goes on. Do you complete those tasks on time? How do you complete those tasks? Do you prioritize the work over others things? Do you manage your time in order to get things done? I'm sure the answer is usually yes. I’m sure you are thinking this is the reason why you don't have the time right? You have too many other things to prioritize than working out, eating healthy, and being healthy? “You just don’t understand.” “You’re too young to get it.” “My situation is different, I really don’t have time.” “Im a single mom.” “I have 5 kids.” I’ve been a personal trainer for 10 years and have trained over 100 people in that time. I’ve seen people with 5 kids, 60 hour work weeks, graveyard shifts, single moms, single dads, and people with missing limbs. Guess what? They all found time to workout and better their health. Let me tell you why you don’t have time and how you can never speak that excuse again.
TIME MANAGEMENT
I am not an expert on time management because I feel I can get better in this area. I’ll be the first to admit that I spend too much time on my phone. Not working on my phone, looking at useless material on my phone. There’s this setting on the iPhone where you can look at your screen time. I try to avoid looking at that because I can’t believe I spend that much time looking at my dumb phone. I am also a personal trainer so I do have an advantage on the times I can workout because I work in a gym. However let’s say my goal is to read more. That has been a goal for awhile so I can apply this knowledge to that. If you have a different goal, the same truth applies to that as well.
I want you to write down everything you have to do in a day. Working, sleeping, driving, and eating. Let’s do an example of a very busy person. We’ll call her Busy Beth. She sleeps 7 hours a night, works 10 hours a day, drives 2 hours and spends 2 hours eating. That’s 21 hours of “must do’s.” Hopefully Beth has a few days off during the week but we will just focus on her week days. So during the week Busy Beth still has a small window of 3 hours in her day. It’s completely up to Beth on how she uses those hours. Beth has 5 kids so it’s obviously important to her to spend as much time with them as possible. So Beth has a family meeting and tells her family she needs to get healthy and wants to get the entire family involved. She tells them they will exercise together for 30 min per day. This starts as a nightly walk, then turns into sports activities, and sometimes includes a 45 min bodyweight workout where they all have a friendly competition. After that Beth still has a couple hours to spare and can even watch a Netflix show before bed. Better yet she spends the time talking to her spouse about how busy work was and their plans for the weekend. Even a busy person like Beth has time to workout and fortunately she’s off on Sunday and devotes the entire day to family. Your situation might be much different but add your “must do’s” up and see how much time you actually have.
I will also add to this that you don't need a gym. There are so many ways to get a workout in at home or anywhere you are. Also, it may be an activity that you enjoy. Boxing? Tennis? Dancing? Find something you will stick with and you won't get bored doing. The gym may not be your thing and that is perfectly fine. Lucky for you we wrote out a workout plan, meal plan, and videos you can do anywhere! CLICK HERE.
HEALTH ISN’T YOUR PRIORITY
This is going to be some tough love for you. This may not be the reason but you may also not know it’s your reason or at least haven't admitted it yet. Look, it goes back to the old saying “actions speak louder than words.” If for the past 4 years you tell me that your health is a priority but your actions show otherwise, I may start to think your words aren't reliable. At what point can I say that you don’t care about your health? Of course you don’t want to be unhealthy or have health problems but why aren’t you doing anything? No time? I just wrote about that excuse! It’s because you truly don’t care. You have taken your health for granted. Hopefully you don’t wait until its too late or you get a terrible diagnosis one day. First step is admitting you don’t prioritize your health. This will make it real to you. This will make you realize the reality you have been living in and it gives you control. Taking ownership for something allows the weight to be lifted and gives you the realization you can change. Everything else in your life you prioritize except your health. All those things do not matter if your health isn’t up to par. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, take ownership, prioritize, and get rid of the weight (pun intended) that is holding you back!
BAR SET TOO HIGH
You look at someone that is in your “goal” shape or someone that’s in incredible shape. You think to yourself, “I could never look like that.” We do this with famous and wealthy people all the time. “Wouldn’t it be nice.” As if the world revolves around pixie dust and just happens to fall on random people. Yes some peoples life are different and they may have an advantage but that doesn’t mean you deserve nothing or can’t make something of yourself. You may look at my sister, Sheree Burton or someone else that's in amazing shape and think to yourself you could never look like that. You probably cop out and convince yourself they are just lucky or got hit with the pixie dust. Let me ask you a question, why do you need to be like them? Why do you need to look like them? Maybe you have a different end goal or maybe you need to focus more on being yourself. You are perfect with the way you were made. Your “success” may look way different than theirs. Just because you are not getting to their "level" doesn’t mean you suck at life. Stop comparing yourself to others and set realistic goals that are tangible at first, then set it higher. Rather, people tend to set the bar way too high at first and beat themselves up when they don’t achieve it. That’s like a 15 year old getting his/her first job and wondering why they aren’t a billionaire in year. Give yourself some credit and put the blinders on to other peoples success. Use it as motivation but not the standard. Be proud of yourself for completing “small” tasks for someone else but huge tasks for yourself. We live in this world where we can’t be ourselves and we need to copy or be like someone else. Be unique and be yourself. When you do that, people actually respect you more for it and who knows, you may turn into the person everyone looks at with the response, “wouldn’t it be nice.” Just another cop out excuse that allows people to put up an imaginary ceiling to their lives. You are worth everything!
I hope I gave you some motivation, realization, and tough love for your life. We all have the ability to change our situation if we really want to. The only ceilings to your life are the ones you’ve created between your ears. They aren’t real. They are lies you’ve been told, told yourself, or you are scared of. Whatever weight that needs to be lifted in your life needs to be attacked head on! Stop telling people why you can’t or that they just don’t understand. Start by changing your perspective and thought process. Start by keeping the words to yourself and get into action. Be the person you were meant to be not the person you think you should be or deserve. We are living human beings that are capable of amazing things! Get out there, take control, and show yourself just how strong you are!