My husband was given this birthday card. It’s one of the funniest cards I’ve seen in a long time. But the sad thing is, it really does capture the attitude of most people. We’re all so busy telling everyone how busy we are that we forget to get on with life. If you were really that busy at work, you’d never reply to group e-mails that are essentially mindless banter. If you were honestly at your limit, you would have logged off from facebook…… permanently.
We are all busy. But that’s life. Let’s live it. Forget the whinging and put more fun into each week. Here are five tips to get busy people exercising more. It’s a win-win. The time you spend exercising will be fun, and you’ll feel better for it when you’re done.
“i can’t believe i remembered your birthday. i’ve just been so busy and popular lately. i’m surprised i remembered you at all.”
- Plan your week. Training sessions don’t happen by themselves. You need to know when and where you’ll exercise…. and then remember to take your gear with you.
- Build in a buffer. If you want to train 5 days a week, schedule 6. Because we all fall down sometimes.
- Keep it real. If you’ve never bounced out of bed before 6am in your life, what makes you think that you’ll start now? There’s no harm in trying. But maybe lunchtimes or evenings are better for you.
- Recognise excuses. Sometimes we have genuine reasons not to train. Sometimes we are creating reasons because we can’t be bothered. If this sounds like you, read this post.
- Seek out opportunities. Active commuting (like cycling, walking or running), playing sports with friends instead of going for lunch, training yourself while your kids play Saturday morning soccer, booking active holidays that you need to train for, organising a group from work to exercise together…. there are so many options available to all of us.
You may not have the time to exercise right now. But with a few adjustments to weekly life, we can all make the time. As they say, we’ll all be a long time dead.
