Currently, I am participating in my friend’s December workout challenge. In this challenge, you commit to working out every day for the whole month of December. Your workout can be a variety of walking, high-intensity interval training, running, weight-lifting, yoga, foam-rolling, etc. but every day you are committed to working out or recovering your body in some shape or form.
My friend, Caitie, is an exceptional strength and movement coach and is the owner and founder of her own coaching business, BCS Training. To put it lightly, she knows her stuff. During this challenge, all members are part of a facebook group where we share our workouts and provide encouraging and supportive messages to each other. In the first week, Caitie asked us what the BIGGEST obstacle we all face that prevents us from getting in our workouts.
The options consisted of:
a) lack of time
b) lack of motivation
c) on vacation
d) not sure what to do (lack of knowledge)
e) other
Want to guess what the winner was?
It was a) lack of time.
This got me thinking…
I wanted to answer lack of time, but in reality, I did have time. I could get up early in the morning and MAKE time to workout. So was it a lack of motivation then? I think so. You see, I could get up at 5 am and get my workout in, but I am not a morning person. Is this a good reason to sleep in and not get up? Absolutely not. I use it as an excuse, as a crutch.
You see, if something is important enough to you, such as working out, you WILL MAKE time for it. We make time for what is important to us. Saying “I don’t have enough time,” is really saying, “It’s not important enough for me to make time for it.”
When I answered honestly about my dilemma of wanting to answer not enough time but realizing what it really came down to was a lack of motivation to get my butt out of bed, Caitie responded in a great way.
“What used to help me when I could only workout at 6 am was to have all of my workout clothes laid out the night before, shower stuff/work clothes/snacks packed in a bag ready to go. Then I’d get up, change, grab a coffee, and out the door I go!”
She also asked me if I had seen Mark Wahlberg’s workout schedule.
I had to admit I had not. Have you? If not, you can watch it here.
He is a crazy and committed dude! In the video, he shares his daily routine, which includes a daily workout regimen at 4 am! Yes, he wakes up around 2:30 am, eats breakfast, and then heads to the gym. By 6 am he is ALREADY eating his second meal of the day, while most of us are still in bed. He understands that if he wants to work out he has to MAKE TIME for what’s important to him. I mean, how else can he maintain that bod?
It drives home the message of doing what’s important. We all have the same amount of time each day; 24 hours. It may not seem like a lot at times but it is up to us to decide how we utilize that time. If you want to workout, make time for it! Do not use time as an excuse. You may have to give up something to get something though. For example, you may have to give up sleeping in to get your workout, or you may have to give up staying up late watching TV to go to bed early to get up OR to get to the gym late at night.
The choice is yours. Do not blame time for your lack of time management or your lack of motivation.
Have a great rest of your week 🙂