“Mr. Miller, reading all of your amazing feats has really inspired me. I love being active and am a fairly health conscious person. I have not yet found my calling in charity work. Anyway, my two biggest obstacles that keep me from accomplishing what I would like are time and, unfortunately, various financial limitations. My main concern is time. How do you manage all of these within the short amount of time throughout the day? The branch I work at requires that I am up early and home late. Between work, sleep and taking care of my 2-month old I have zero to little time. I am not one to complain but some insight on how you do things would be greatly appreciated.”-E.J.
I tend to hear questions like this frequently, so I thought it would make for a good post! The main challenge we all have in life is to juggle work and play. The key to finding time when you perceive to not have any, is to take a look at the ‘play’ in your day. Are you taking time watching television, playing video games or social networking in the time you are not at work? Whatever time you are not dedicating to family, or work, is extra time in your day which you could be using to exercise.
The first step in an exercise plan is the desire to want to make a change in your routine. Whatever your motivation is for exercising, keep that motivation alive and burning brightly throughout your day because your desire is going to challenge you when you do not feel like getting up early, or going to bed late. Keep quotes, pictures or inspirational music around all the time, as you should always think about being positive, upbeat and motivated all the time. Keep track of your comments throughout the day; write them down when you catch yourself being negative. When you read that negativity at the end of the week, train yourself to avoid the situations which brought about this behavior. Just after that, go online and search motivational pieces, or other stories of inspiration you can read, and keep in the back of your mind. My personal favorite: Terry Fox.
The second step is to take that extra time in your day, and find a way to convert it into taking time to exercise. Remember, unless you are training for the Ironman, you do not need more than 30-60 minutes a day of activity. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to spend no more than 60-minutes at a time for his work-outs; the lesson? He worked HARD during the time he was at the gym. You will find that if you hit the treadmill, exercise bike or some form of home-based DVD program, you will get into great shape! If your time is better in the morning, or in the evening, learn to adapt your habit to exercise at the time you have the most away from your ‘daily stressors’ in life. You do not need to drive to the gym, take 2-hours and drive back; if that does not fit into your time frame, then you have to adapt to more a more streamlined approach. Again, it all comes down to how much time you have to exercise, and using that in the most efficient way possible.
The third step is to SET THAT PLAN INTO ACTION! You have to give yourself a chance at establishing a routine; the single more important aspect of any form of exercise. Put a few of these things into you head, ahead of time so you do not use them as an excuse. You will be tired from getting back into shape; deal with it. You will be excessively sore the first week or so; deal with it. You will not see results for 2-3 weeks; deal with it. If you have those three things down, then after 3-4 weeks of exercise, your routine will go through the roof, you will begin to look like a rock star and feel like Christmas morning. Everyone will tell you how awesome you look, you will have to buy new pants and your self-confidence will begin to take off. Sounds awesome, right? It is. And guess what? Right here, right now, you can start yourself on that path to greatness – all it takes is that first step. Set your mind to work out 3-5 days a week, 30-60 minutes a day for 3-4 weeks. I guarantee you will thank yourself repeatedly after your first month, but you have to set your mind to not quit on yourself, and to provide any excuse you can for not getting out there and making it happen!
As far as my routine goes, let’s just say my approach to exercise is a little more on the extreme side. Luckily, I do not sleep much to begin with, so I am a perfect candidate for endurance exercise. My routine typically is 3-days/week of double day (before and after work) and 3-days of once daily work-outs. On the double days, I do sprint work in the AM, and middle distance in the evening. On the other days, I simply do long distance swimming sets. I complete 3-days/week of physical therapy at home for strengthening, and at this point, I focus primarily on swimming, versus incorporating other forms of cross training. I am not weightlifting, as building extra muscle will replace the fat which is so desperately needed in order to counteract the extreme cold of the North Channel in Ireland this coming August. In my off season, I enjoy running, climbing, cycling and any other form of exercise than swimming.
The mindset on my life, and what I want to accomplish has been quite focused the past few years. Although I have had obstacles along the way, in order to be successful at the ‘Oceans Seven’ my training and lifestyle need to be on point. It can be very challenging, but a person becomes ‘hardened’ over time due to the level of stress and pain your body endures through these challenges; handling a strenuous daily routine becomes easier. I focus on that which motivates me to become the leader I want, and I know I am still working toward that goal. If you want to do accomplish your dreams, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. I’ll say it again, what I have so many times. It is the best advice I can give to train the body to becoming what you want:
“Do something every day which you do not want to do.” Think about it.
I will leave you with one of the best quotes I have received over the years. This comes from Dean Karnazes, record breaking ultra-marathon runner, entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, husband and father of two…
“Lack of time is the most often cited excuse for not exercising. Yet it is just that: an excuse. In reality, regular exercisers have no more free time than non-exercisers. Non-exercisers are simply more likely to devote their free time to other activities, such as watching television, playing video games and surfing the internet, instead of exercising. None of us has time to do everything we would like to do, so we conscientiously choose our priorities. When a person says, “I just don’t have time to exercise” what that person essentially means is, “exercise is not a high priority for me.” Though I think exercisers and non-exercisers both know this.”
Cheers to LIFE. Do not be afraid to live it…