I don’t have enough time to exercise!
The oldest excuse in the book. The time excuse is used daily, hourly and probably every few minutes as to why someone cant exercise. And its the biggest load of crap I have ever heard.
We all get 24 hours in a day 7 days in a week and 365 days in a year. We get exactly the same as one another. No more no less. Yet some people just cant find the time in the day to do the one thing that will improve their life. Exercise! REALLY?
So lets break it down – there are 24 hours in a day or 1440 minutes. We tend to sleep for 7 hours on average. This brings down the amount of available time down to 1020 minutes (1440 – 420), ok. Now we tend to work between 7-10 hours depending upon our job. This brings us down to 420 minutes (1020 – 600) – this is based on working a long 10 hours (we will include commute time in here too). From there you might lose a couple of hours in the morning and evening to meal prep and don’t forget family time. Lets say 2 hours for meals and 3 hours for family (if youre lucky) that still leaves us with 2 hours or 120 minutes.
Even in the busiest persons schedule there are times there where you can take minutes away from your work and build them back into your life. If you cant see where you can reschedule your day and bring time back to you well then we need to talk further. When did you job become more important than your own health and well being. When did chasing the dollar mean more than living a long and healthy life? When did you job become more important then your family? If you answered no to any of those questions you need to ask your self why am I giving my job a priority of my health and well being and the health and well being of those around me?
Don’t worry we are all guilty of this. I am no exception. When I was working a corporate job, it was the most important thing in the world to me. I was chasing the next deal to make more money and to get a step up the corporate ladder. My priorities were all wrong. You would think after losing my father to heart disease at 65 I would have changed my ways but it took a few years for the change to come about but when it did I didn’t look back. You can read more of my story here <MY STORY>.
A really simple way to increase the time you have available to you is to wake up an hour earlier than you have been. If you do this for 7 days, you will gift yourself an additional 7 hours (equivalent to a work day to most). Ugghhh I hear you moan. One hour earlier can set up your entire day. Get you ahead of the game in so many ways. Don’t believe me? Why not try it and see. What have you go to lose?
Another tip you can implement is to bring in a digital free period into your day. Mark out time when you won’t be on your phone on ANY social media. Or even at work when sitting at your desk – stay off Facebook. Not only will you suddenly find you have more time in your day for all the tasks you have to complete you might just finish earlier and not be in the office or at your desk for as long. Yet again another win for you.
What will you do if you implement these easy tips and you gain back time? That’s pretty simple you will be cheering. All of a sudden you can do more in your day and maybe even spend more time with those who are the most important to you. Sound good?
Now getting in time to do some exercise is now achievable. YES? “I don’t have enough time to exercise” I can hear those words right now, followed by the groans of “My family need me and Im busy doing things for the kids” or “Im out catching up with friends”. Lets look at these two excuses – yes they are just excuses. So the old “My family” excuse, it rears its ugly head! Whist being an active parent, partner and provider for your family, you also owe it to yourself and ultimately your children to be the best version of yourself you can be. That means the healthiest, most capable, most present, loving and happy person you can be.
I can imagine as a parent you want to give your family every possible thing you can. But realistically all your family wants from you is you. Think about your own parents, the material things they gave to you no longer matter. All that you cherish is the memories of the time you had with them. And if you’re lucky enough to have them still here you value all the time you have with them rather than what they can give you. I lost my own father some 17 years ago and my fondest memories are of him and I doing things together, like mowing the lawn or when he taught me how to shave. He was a very generous man and gave me everything I could have wished for. I would however give that all back to have more time with him. Im sure your family would feel the same. My father died from heart disease. He chose a path of working very hard to provide for his family and provided as much as he could for us all. Id prefer to have more time with him than anything he ever gave me.
Try and implement some of the tips that I have already spoken about and see what impact it has in the time you have during your day.
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