Timeless Tradeoffs

This world, especially in the western society, seems to be defined by time. Everything that we do, and do not do is constrained by time. Time will rule our life unless we wield our personal power to take responsibility for convincing the clock to work in our favor.
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I want to be more physically fit; I want to be healthier; I want to compete in an athletic event. We have all had this conversation before with ourselves and with our friends. The number one objection I hear is that someone lacks the resources they would like to have to achieve the health and fitness of their dreams. The reality is that there is a limited amount of resources. True. The reason that most do not make health and fitness a priority is because of convenience and time. Well, if convenience is the problem let me help you by delivering a workout to your phone (exercise video demonstrations included) so that you can do what we all do at the gym already – look at your phone awkwardly in between sets (checking emails, planning the evening’s events after you finish your workout, or making sure everyone on “the gram” knew you made your sweaty appearance to “pay your dues” for eating those donuts for breakfast). At the end of the day, I am passionate about coaching people into a healthier and happier life using fitness.

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Now, if you’re still reading, great. That means that convenience isn’t your barrier. Onwards to time… that is, if you have time to read more. I promise to keep it short. We each have an allotted amount of the world’s most precious resource every minute, hour, day, week, month, year, etc. We all have 168 hours in our week. The difference between each of us is how we utilize that time. There is one simple way to get started today making time work in your favor instead of having your stomach in knots while you continuously race the clock – GET ORGANIZED. Structure might seem rigid and forced but that is simply a perception. Paradoxically, a bit of structure added to your schedule can offer freedom.
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One of my favorite ways of getting organized that takes your highest purpose and desires into account is by using a weekly calendar to create your Best Week where you create a hypothetical week that has each of your responsibilities and priorities considered. Be sure to add the important stuff – things like sleep, eating and cooking, exercise and recreation, time in transit, your work or school schedule –  that you must accomplish. Be sure not to skimp on sleep! Block out a full 8-9 hours. Remember this is the schedule that you would ideally follow if everything in your day went perfectly. Once finished, you have a framework for your realistic and reactive schedule. The framework of your Best Week will help you be more aware to time management, your decisions, manage those decisions more efficiently, and provide you with the opportunity to say no to the things you don’t want and yes to those that you do. This system for your schedule is one of trade-offs. You will have to make decisions but instead of the uncertainty of “what if” you will have the certainty of knowing exactly what’s being taken on and/or given up. For example, I do my best to keep a 2-hour window of time in the middle of the day free for when I feel most efficient and creative for doing things like designing workout programs, writing, or keeping myself active. Therefore, whenever I schedule a client for an afternoon session, I know that the trade-off will be giving up my best efficiency and creativity to accomplish those tasks. Developing this system for myself took time and it’s a continual process of refinement in the name of effectiveness. Adding the freedom of choosing the what’s and the when’s of your life is where we all should go our own way and experiment with what works best for each of us individually. Some may not enjoy making decisions this way, some might only want to use a paper calendar, still others might need two calendars to take children or a spouse into consideration. Whatever your situation, ACT! Remaining idle in reclaiming your agenda is the worst-case scenario while life continues to blend the days together in a flurry of hurry. Act by raising your awareness to how your time is spent by turning to the basic ways to track your time: online calendar systems and paper planners. Once you know what you spend your time doing, you can choose to invest your time in health and fitness.
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Ambrose Lisowe Ambrose is a Kinesiologist and Strength and Conditioning Specialist who thrives on coaching those around him to do their best and to be their best. Whether it’s the science of movement or the psychology surrounding our goals and actions, Coach Ambrose is an expert at helping others achieve high performance.