How bad do you want it?

[Coach Jones]

Lately, i've seen a lot of forum posts and recieved a couple emails with one thing in common. They are all written by busy people. People who are juggling work, family, friends and various different obligations. They've all expressed (what I believe to be) a heart-felt interest and desire to begin a transformation and start or revisit their physical training.

The problem...they just don't have the time. :roll:

I was talking, last week, to a buddy of mine who is incredibly busy, he's a production designer in LA. Works constantly and for long hours. He was telling me how he really wanted to get serious about getting in shape. He wanted to, but he didn't have the time. He couldn't "fit-it-in". After about 5 minutes of listening to him explain, in great detail, all of the reasons why he couldn't I asked him this question:

"Hey, did you see friends last night?"

Having known him for years, I already knew the answer. We talked about how funny it was when so-and-so did this, and which episodes were the funniest. I like to think that he was clever enough to figure out what I was doing, but denial is a funny thing.

So...

I decided to post something to help out all the busy folks out there. I'm unable to alter time and space (at the moment) so for now we'll have to focus on time management.

First, here's a couple of little stories about time management and desire:

One young man had to work on his parents farm from sun up to sun down. Hard work, all day long. His passion though was inventing. His mother told him that while he had to go to bed soon after he finished his chores and ate dinner, he could get up whenever he wanted. He thought about it and began getting up at 3am in order to have a couple hours a day to "tinker" with his inventions. That was Thomas Edison.

Another fella' decided that while he didn't really know what he wanted to do with his life, he thought maybe music might be interesting. He decided to give himself one year to study, practice and do everything possible to make himself into a better musician. He focused on this and ONLY on this for one year. That was Trent Rezner (9 Inch Nails).

The point is, it all depends on how much you want it. We're all busy. We all have obligations, but what's more important than your health? How can you afford NOT to make that a priority?

It's not easy. Nothing worthwile ever is. If it were everyone would be in great shape.

We live in a microwave world where we want everything right now. I bought a new coffee pot so that now it takes me only 1 minute to brew a hot ,tasty pot of coffee. You know what, I still use the timer so that the coffee is made before I get out of bed. Apparantly 1 minute is just too much time for me to wait for my morning dose of caffeinne.



If you still think your too busy try this:

Wake up just 20 minutes earlier 2 times per week. Try it for three months.

40 minutes per week
160 minutes per month
8 hours of training in three months

Can you spare 8 hours in the next 3 months??

That's all it takes to start.

Brandon Jones
CST Head Coach

[Mike]

Excellent post Brandon! I didn't know that about Trent Reznor. I find that my major problem is never taking the time to follow through with things. I don't want to say that I half ass anything, but realistically I've left a lot of things in my life incomplete. Ambitious people set goals and follow through. I find that the most successful people are never afraid to fail, so they "go for it!"

[Coach Jones]

I find that the most successful people are never afraid to fail, so they "go for it!"

I think that statement is key! It's easy to become discouraged when going after a long term goal. I can be as guilty as anyone (probably more so at times). The important thing, I think, is to realize that every single step is important. Every beer that you pass on, every cookie that you leave in the jar, every time that you purposely park further away from your destination so that you HAVE to walk a little further. All those things are steps in the right direction.

Brandon Jones
CST Head Coach

[Scott Sonnon]

This post needs to become an article for the next issue, amigo. Superb post.

As someone who runs several businesses, has an active family life, continues to explore, research and develop new ideas, and finds ample time to train, practice and compete throughout the day, I don't accept when people tell me that they "don't have even 20 minutes to exercise."

It's all about Value Hierarchy (http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1624). If you value your health, you'll prioritize the time for it ahead of other activities and/or become better time managed.

[Coach Jones]

uhhhh...I don't think I have time to write an artice.

Just Kidding :wink:

I'll get it to you ASAP. :lol:

[Chuck Kechter]

Great Post!

[Randell Waddell]

Morning Brandon,

Compliments on your post.

I have found throughout the years that the people I have most enjoyed working with, have inevitably been those who already fit 60 hours into a 24 hour day. Because their time in general is so precious, they invariably value their training time and interaction so much more than others.

As I personally push the boundaries striving to fit all sorts of projects into my own limited time, I greatly value my exercise time, and although I have " a bit of a repertoire" to choose from, I generally return repeatedly to the material we share on this forum (often well after midnight if need be ).

[ I had a great time up at the "Delta" - lots of tales of adventure and good memories - thanks again for your input. Folks - if you get any chance at all to train with Brandon, grasp it !!!! ]

Cheers
Randell :D

[somlor]

I think my problem with time management is that I have trouble finding the happy medium between extreme laziness and day planning that borders on OCD. :roll: How do those of you that feel mostly successful with time management go about planning? I usually use Covey's "four quadrant" method.

[rbibbs]

I'm 'old' and genetically scrawny. With my recovery rate, a good workout lasts me a week. In between, I manage to cram a couple hours of BJJ and kickboxing training. I'm also unemployed, so hypthethically I've got all the time to train I could possible use.

Other than my scheduled training, I train 'when it feels good'. I stay on the verge of overtraining all the time. And it still occupies only about 4 hours a week. C'mon, who doesn't have 4 hours... or even two... out of 168 to devote to their present and future ability to enjoy their physical lives?

[Jay76]

Everyone is full of excuses. Everyone will work hard at making money, but for everything else, nothing. :shock:

JasonL

[anthonyantosh]

My problems always comes from staying with a program. Yes I do have time problems, but I tend to fall off the wagon. I'll give an example. I started Warrior Wellness about a year ago. For the first three weeks I practiced every day. Then got bored with it. So I jumped into the 2nd tape. Practiced every day, got bored then tried the advanced tape. I could not do the advanced skills and stopped doing Warrior Wellness all together. I have done the same thing with Fist, Leg Fencing, Be Breathed, etc. When something is new it's all great, but when the shine wears off, what happens? Getting stronger outside is easy. There are books, videos, excercises, etc, to help. But are there excercises to strengthen the mind?
Some people are just strong mentally. Others, (like myself) need to work harder at it. Someone please help.
tony

[Scott Sonnon]

Within each exercise you will find an ever deepening array of exciting "new" discoveries. You need faith to practice, train and compete; only faith will carry you through plateaus.

The most effective tool for developing mental stamina is to find that which you need but you find boring and do it anyway. There's no shortcut.

Persistance, determination and vigilance. Make these your goals, and everything else as means to their development.

As Brandon initially wrote, you need to decide and continually reaffirm your decision - how badly do you want it?

[admin]

Fine post Brandon!
People always find time to do what they want, plain and simple. As you said, denial is a funny thing. When we finally wake up to the fact that 'we are always training', whether we value the outcome or not, whether we see our every day actions as training for tomorrow, it might finally occur to us that maybe we can train smarter for something we do value. And as the saying goes, 'wealth without health is still poor'.

Here's a fine quote by Winston Churchill:

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Again, fine post and I look forward to your article.

[Scott Sonnon]

Michael, it's a very important point. Every act is an act of conditioning. It takes as much work to get and be fat and immobile as it does to be fit and mobile. It's just easier to stay with one's currently chosen direction rather than choosing a different one.

I've chosen many directions throughout my life, some good, some not. But the best guidance I ever received was that everything was my choice, and all of my results (healthy or not) specifically produced from those choices.

[JasonE]

Deja Vu!

I've battled with a lifelong time-management deficiency... it's one of my greatest weaknesses, and I hate books and tapes that try to tell me how to get better at it.

Still, I must be getting better at it, as I'm juggling a full-time job, a serious relationship, play rehearsals and performances, my CST training and research, my MMA & Escrima training, and I still find time to watch some TV, hang out with friends, go swing dancing, teach myself HTML, surf the internet, and all kinds of other stuff. By the end of the year I expect to be spending part of my time teaching CST and martial arts, and taking massage therapy and bodywork courses.

How bad do I want it? Must be pretty bad, or I'm a nutcase... :wink:

[SteveB]

I love the "Did you watch..." ploy. I used to use this on UCLA students who said they didn't have time to write. This was one of the reasons I created the "Five mintue Miracle" program--anyone who says they don't have "time" to exercise for five minutes a day is lying to themselves. As Body-Flow says in connection to Fear Reactivity, we store negative emotions in our body. If you start working your body after a long layoff, you start tapping into this negative material, and it can be sobering and painful. Knowing the distance you have to travel to "fitness" can be humiliating. Better just to pretend not to have the time, right? Well, if taking care of your body isn't one of your top, say...seven priorities, you are dishonest. If it isn't one of your top five, you are cheating yourself. Personally, its one of my top three. We don't have unmotivated people, we have people unclear on their values, who don't allow themselves to crystallize what they really want in life for fear they won't be able to have it. It's sad, and a waste of life. The pursuit of the savage body is one of the purest goals in life. Your body is you. The shape it is in is dependant more on YOUR efforts, attitudes and actions than almost any other aspect of life. Miss your connection here, and you miss a chance to really, truely understand who you are.

Steve Barnes