Fit By ___

A few weeks ago I was asked to write about one of the barriers that keep people from working out. Ultimately, it’s about time. For most people, in order to take the time to work out, you are having to take time away for something else… or someone else. For instance, if you are a parent, you are taking time away for your kids and home responsibilities to workout. You are selfishly choosing to invest in yourself as opposed to your family. Right?

The simple answer is Yes… and No.

Here’s the pressure: You only get a certain amount of time… you can’t get more, but you can receive less.  You only have your kids in the house for a certain amount of time (About 18 years) and then that’s it! (With the exception of current millennial trends) You don’t get those 18 years back, but they could be less. Marriage investments are important and those rates are about 50% where or not they last. Work will always be there… We hope, and yet we feel like it’s always fleeting and could all go away at the drop of a hat. For work, we do whatever it takes to get the job done…. most of us give our all to work without exception. That went to a dark place for a minute didn’t it?

Here are bullet points:

1. Life is limited

2. Life with kids is limited

3. Marriage: Half are Limited and Half are not

4. Work: We feel is limited, but in reality is not

We can’t buy or work into more time in life. We can experience less time in life, but we can’t buy more. Your life will go until you die… we can’t avoid that! We will all die. The question is always when? The answer… I don’t know.

With a limited amount of time in this life… what will you do with it?

Clearly, most people choose to pour everything into their kids, work, or family. Is that the best choice? Depending on what you choose in this mentality, please know that you can’t do all three. You can’t give your all in all of these areas, but you might be able to do one of them really well. Basically, the choice comes down to work or family? Which one will get your all? Which one will thrive while the other keeps going as best it can?

But…

What if there was a way to increase your workload and increase your ability to be more present in your life? What if you could do something that would increase the quality of all you are doing? What if you could do something that would make you a better Mom, Dad, employee, and friend? What if you could have more joy in your life? What if you could do something that would make sure you would get all the life you are trying to live and not shorten it? Would you do it? Would you be interested?

Here’s the deal… brass tacks! If you don’t invest in yourself you will always be stuck being a subpart, life shortening, and burnt out human… parent… employee. If you aren’t investing in yourself you will not be the best you can be for your kids, your spouse, your friends, or your employer. Investing in yourself changes you and the people around you.

The BEST thing you can do for your kids is to model the life you hope they live!

Seriously, look hard at your life, the way you feel, and the way you function… Is that the life you want for them? Or do you hope for something better?

Kids will do what they see you do. If you are a washed up, given up hope, stay at home mom with a terrible marriage… guess what your kids will see as normal? Guess what your kids will come to expect from their spouse? If you are a Dad who comes home from work, after killing yourself all day, and all you do is sit around letting alcohol and the TV kill you… guess what your kids will come to see as normal? Guess what they will expect from their spouse one day? (Sorry if you are offended you with the gender stereotypes, they are just examples)

If you are NOT investing in yourself and specifically your health, you are killing yourself sooner, missing out on a life that is passing you by, and only passing on bad habits and choices to your kids… so, not only are you shortening your own life, you are also shortening theirs as well.

Dang! Sorry I got so hard right there… woah!

I’m passionate about this… can you tell? I didn’t know what I was missing and I didn’t know what life could be until this journey really started going. Now, I don’t want anyone else to miss out of this… join me!

Go ahead, say it! You know what excuse you want to give next… say it!

But I don’t have …. time

But I don’t have … money

But I don’t know what to do

But…

But…

But…

I will leave this blog with this last thought and maybe write about this later. You don’t lack any of these things… You lack proper priorities. That’s all. If you prioritize this, you will realize that you have what you need already.  Don’t buy into this lie. You have what you need for your priorities and if it’s not a priority, then you have excuses.

Stop buying excuses and Keep Going!