“Thank you for asking, but no, I don’t want to do that.”
How often do you say that?
Answer: Not enough.
The most common excuse I hear about someone not working out or eating better is their lack of time.
I get it.
Most of us feel like we don’t have any time left to squeeze one more thing into our day let alone time to workout or prepare a healthy meal.
It’s like a game of Jenga must be played to find out where you can free up a block of time, yet not topple over the tower— aka not get you fired from your job or leave your kids abandoned waiting for a ride.
How the heck do you do that?
There are probably multiple ways to free up time, but I want to touch on just one.
Learn to start saying the word “no.”
Let’s say you get out of work at 4:45 pm and arrive at the gym by 5 pm. You workout from 5 to 5:45 pm and are home by 6 pm for dinner.
You do this 3 days per week.
Great.
That is YOUR time.
You have chosen to carve out a few hours a week to be healthy, capable, strong, and to decrease the negative effects of aging.
But wait.
Your co-worker Sharon wants to go out for drinks after work to complain about her boyfriend?
- “Whoops, sorry Sharon, perhaps you had me confused for a moonlighting psychiatrist. Let’s talk at lunch tomorrow.”
What? The guy you met online last night wants to bring you home to meet his family at 5:30 pm?
- Run for your life. Or if you are into weird things, tell him you can meet later in the evening.
Your great-aunt Bertha asked you to come over and help her paint when you get out of work?
- “Sorry Bert, but my weekdays are full. If I have time, I will come help you this weekend.”
The answer to all of these could easily be yes or easily be no.
Some of you reading this would say yes to every single one. I could write 15 more and you would still say yes.
YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
You have no protection of your time whatsoever. Anyone can swoop in and change your schedule whenever they please.
Since you have a habit of doing this kind of thing, you suffer.
In reality, Sharon, online weirdo, and Bertha can pound sand.
It is NOT you job to be Sharon’s counselor on her schedule.
It is NOT your job to play into online weirdo’s fantasy world. (You should really be scared if he’s into taxidermy)
It is also NOT your job to be great aunt Bertha’s personal painter.
At the risk of offending all you self proclaimed altruistic people, it does not make you a bad person to say NO.
Until you learn to protect your time, you will never consistently have time to workout and eat healthy.
The problem is, many times we are afraid to let others down who do not respect our time.
We are SCARED to say no because we want to have the image of being the person who can always help — the fixer.
You put on the facade of being the person who can always make stuff better and do so at the expense of your happiness often times.
It becomes a scary thing to simply say “no” to those who ask things of us.
So, what happens?
You say yes — over and over and over again.
What Should You Do?
“Should” is a bold word, but I am going to tell you what I started doing years ago.
Start saying no.
Say it whenever you feel like it and mean it.
Protect your greatest asset — your time.
As the saying goes, promise little and do exactly what you promise.
Saying yes to things too often left me annoyed and pissed off.
I would be resentful and get angered because I didn’t have the time I needed for my own schedule.
Now, I already know there are some of you reading this who think this sounds selfish and not helpful to others.
So, I will break this down for you individuals:
Be as helpful to others as you are able, whether that is a listening ear to a friend going through a divorce or your fancy hands on a paint brush.
Pushing your schedule around a little isn’t the end of the world.
The problem is consistency.
As many of you have heard me say, nothing good happens with a person’s fitness and nutrition without consistency. With that said, be generous with your time you give to others, but also, consistently give yourself the time you need to be physically and mentally healthy.
You cannot truly take care of anyone else until you take care of yourself.
If you have any questions, shoot me an email at: JwaltersPT@gmail.com
or, to learn more visit my website at:
jonwalters.co 