Your “Lack of Time” Excuse Is Over

I value my time before I leave for work each day.

I always have.

I require time to myself to get ready for the day and I will wake up far before I need to in order to make this happen.

Throughout the summers during high school and college I worked for a landscaping company where I needed to arrive for work by 7:30 am.

I woke up every morning by 5:30 am in preparation for this.

Presently, twice a week I start work at 6:00 am. I get up at 4:00 am for this.

That’s after going to bed at midnight.

You probably wonder why on earth sleeping an extra hour plus isn’t more valuable to me than getting up.

After all, in both of the above scenarios I am only a 15 minute drive from work. I could easily get 75 more minutes of sleep and be to work on time.

My best answer is simply that being up with plenty of time to sit and eat breakfast, have some coffee perhaps, do some reading, shower, and mentally prepare means more to me than sleeping.

More simplistically put:

I make time for it because I value it.

249204_10100112019464115_4046234_n — Because I’m sure you were curious, here’s some of my landscape work from years ago.

Time is our greatest asset and as Gary Vaynerchuk has said, it is something we will never get more of.

Every one of us has the exact same amount of time in each day.

The only difference is we all have varying things that we choose to occupy that time with.

Work, family, and hobby/pleasure are the most common uses of time with differing degrees of emphasis placed on each based on the person.

You often hear people say how busy they are and how they don’t have time for anything. Fitness usually being one of them.

The truth is, they probably are telling the truth. They don’t have time to add on any additional things in their life. Whether that’s working out, helping a friend move, or cleaning the garage.

But, clarity needs to be presented on this.

Because no, those individuals don’t have time, but they don’t have time BY THEIR OWN CHOICE.

We will always make time for what we value most.

This is the point that needs to be hammered home.

If you make an honest list of what you place the most value on for using your time on a daily basis you will immediately see why your time gets spent the way it does.

You may very well value watching two hours of television at night more than going to the gym.

You might value playing videos games after work more than going for a walk.

You perhaps value meeting up with friends for a drink more than going to a group workout.

Or you might value the pleasure/social aspect of eating unhealthy food and not seeing progress more than eating correctly and seeing great progress.

But the one constant is that you will always choose what you value most in each day of your life.

It is YOUR choice if you don’t workout.

It is YOUR choice if you make poor eating decisions.

Stop saying you don’t have time to workout or eat correctly, because you do, but you are choosing to do other things with that time.

Now, if health and fitness simply is not on your list of what you value most in your day, then this doesn’t apply to you. You have made your choice and it makes complete sense why you don’t workout or eat healthy.

There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that.

But when someone asks you to come to the gym with them, go for a bike ride, or tells you about how to cook healthy meals, do not tell them you don’t have time for it.

Be honest.

Tell them you don’t value those things enough to fit them into your day.

It’s the truth. No need to lie or beat around the bush.

Because guess what, you don’t have to watch House of Cards.

You don’t have to get your nails done.

You don’t have to go to the bar.

You don’t have to get eight hours of sleep.

Let’s be clear, I don’t think that we all have time to workout for an hour or more each day.

But be honest with yourself. If time really is at that much of a premium for you, there are fantastic at-home workouts you can blast in 20–30 minutes. EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU can make that work a few times per week.

Because I can promise you one thing, I don’t care how busy you think you are, I know people busier than you who find a way to make their health and fitness a valued part of their day.

I am not here to tell you that you value the wrong things, but I do want you to take a look at your day and make sure you have given your health at least a little priority.

It’s time to decide what matters most to you and stop spending ONE MINUTE wasting your time on anything else.