Category Archives: Fitness

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10 Ways to Create Margin in Your Life

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Are you running at full speed wondering at the end of the day where your day went and feeling stressed out? Are you going from one appointment to another being consistently late for your appointments? Do you get home feeling overwhelmed from your day only to find that you have a full schedule of car pooling to your kids events?

Today this is the new “normal”. It is not a healthy way to live. It is time to create some margin in your life.

I learned a lot about margin from Dr. Dick Swenson in his excellent book Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives . Dr Swenson does a great job of discussing how to get your life back.

10 Ways to Create Margin in Your Life

1. Review the family calendar on Sunday night

Take time on Sunday evenings to review the upcoming week of activities and plan your week with your spouse. Make sure you take time to plan family fun. I would highly recommend Patrick Lencioni’s book The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable About Restoring Sanity To The Most Important Organization In Your Life for families. Patrick takes business principles and applies them to the family. This is a good resource if you are feeling overwhelmed with family activities.

2. Put Church on your weekly family calendar

It is important to attend church weekly and to pray daily. This is a time to worship and praise God. One of our family rules as my kids grew up was that we did not take a vacation from God because He does not take a vacation from us. When we were traveling or on vacation we always found a church to attend. I know in today’s hectic world there are sports events on Sundays. You will need to decide what is more important.

3. Set a night for date night

Pick a night during the week for you and your spouse to go out or spend time together. This does not mean you have to spend a bunch of money. There are lots of things you can do inexpensively. It may mean just going for a walk at a park or going to a coffee shop. Pick an inexpensive restaurant you both like and have dinner together. Put the phones aside and take time to talk.

4. Reduce the events your kids participate in.

Today our kids are expected to be involved in everything. This can be a huge stress on the family. Consider limiting your kids’ activities. You might consider things like only allowing one sport per season and limiting their club activities and other lessons.

5. Set up ghost appointments at work.

If you have the ability to control your schedule at work make ghost appointments. The first time I heard of ghost appointments was at a dentists office. I overheard him speaking to the receptionist and he was asking about what times he had ghost appointments. I asked him what those were. He told me they were appointments that were scheduled that allowed for emergencies and for time for him to get caught up during the day. I found this a great concept and implemented it into my own day just by scheduling appointments with myself in my calendar during the day.

6. Set your clock or watch 10 minutes early

If you find that you are consistently late for appointments try setting your watch or clock in your car 10 – 15 minutes early.

7. Set aside 3 months living expenses in a savings account

Start by putting aside 1 month of living expenses in a savings account until you build up to 3 months. This may take some discipline and some time, but it is recommended by many financial experts. It will help to reduce financial stress.

8. Plan your workout times

Many people start their day by working out to insure that they take care of their fitness first thing. Lunch time can be a good time time to get a midday break and give yourself more energy for the rest of the day. Working out is a great way to reduce stress, stay healthy and have more energy.

9. Spend some time with friends

A great way to do this when you are on a tight schedule is to go out with another couple or invite another couple over to your home. Guys I have found that women need more time with friend than we do (this may just be me). Make sure you allow her time to bond with her friends.

10. Have dinner with the Family

I know this can be very challenging today. The family dinner table is a great place to learn about how the family is doing and what is going on at school. A fun game to play is high/low. What is the best thing that happened to you today? What did not go well today? If you absolutely can’t make dinner try family breakfast. It is very important to spend time together at meals.

Be Great!

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Are You Missing this Workout?

Brain

We all know we should be working out our bodies. However, there is one workout that many people do not do.

Are you working your brain out? This is key to long term brain health.

Our brains are always changing either for better or for worse throughout our lives. The objective of brain workouts is to positively impact brain plasticity. This type of training leads to improved brain performance.

One of my favorite brain workouts is Lumosity. You can test the program for free. Luminosity also has more testing programs available by subscription. They have individual and family plans. You can play on an iPad, iPhone, android phone or computer.

Luminosity surveys you to determine what areas you want to work on. The exercises can be done on an iPad or computer. After completing a series of tests it enables you to see how you compare to others in your age group and what professions are closest to yours considering your best test scores on certain games. Lumosity has an index that measures speed, memory, attention, flexibility and problem solving.

BrainHQ is another excellent program much like Luminosity. They both have neuroscientists involved in research and development. BrainHQ sets up personalized training programs based on your personal preferences. You can pick on whether you want to excel at work, improve your athletic performance or if you are using the program to help recover from a brain injury.

BrainHQ will also provide you with a report on your progress. The program focuses on attention, memory, brain speed, intelligence, people skills and navigation.

Cognifit is another brain training program. The iPhone app is free. There is a free version of the program at the website that you can use to get started on. The internet based program can be done on your iPad, iPhone or computer. This is a good program to experiment with to determine if you like brain training.

Cognifit measures the skills of visual scanning, focus attention, processing speed, response time and short-term memory. The tests match you up against people in your age category to let you know how you are performing in comparison.

Using any of these programs you will find that the more you practice the better you will get at the games and in the process improve your brain health.

Be Great!

“It is all about the little things.”

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Living in Gratitude

Gratitude

What are your daily gratitude habits? Do you take time to review what you are grateful for every day?

Developing gratitude is easier said than done. It takes discipline to develop gratitude. Here are some ways to help develop your gratitude.

Start a gratitude list

This is a list that has things you are grateful for such as your health, the home or apartment you live in, your spouse, friends, talents that you have, your job, etc. Review this list as frequently as you would like. Your morning reflection time is a great time to review your gratitude list.

Start a gratitude journal

This is a journal to record what you are grateful for during the day or the week. This is yours so you can use it daily, several times a week or weekly. Some people like to keep the journal in written form while others like to use electronic formats. My favorite electronic format is Day One online journal . It is available in iTunes. The nice thing is that it syncs between all your devices. You can also take pictures for memories.

Gratitude Letter or Recording

Send a letter or a voice recording to someone that you are grateful for in you life and why you are grateful. This is extremely powerful and will have an impact on that persons day. You could even record a video to make it even more personal.

I strongly encourage you to start today with this video called “A Good Day” with Brother David Steindl-Rast. It will change the way you look at your day. Just click on “A Good Day” above to go to the video.

Brother Steindl-Rast has a website Gratefulness.org. He has a lot of material on gratitude on the site. You might also enjoy his TEDx talk Want to be happy? Be grateful.

Leading researcher on gratitude, Robert A. Emmons PhD, psychology professor and researcher, University of California, Davis has an excellent book to help you to develop a habit of gratitude. The book Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity is an excellent way to help you get started on a gratitude journey.

Dr. Emmons has an excellent website. There is a Gratitude Questionairre that you can take to measure your gratitude.

Some Key Benefits of Gratitude

  • Healthier
  • Reduced Stress
  • Better Immune Function
  • Improved Relationships
  • Better Sleep
  • Content with what you have

One of the best places to reflect on gratitude is in the outdoors. It may be at sunrise or sunset. It may be overlooking a lake, the ocean or looking at mountains. Many people get a better sense of what to be thankful for when they are observing nature.

Some of my best lessons in gratitude have been on mission trips. I went with my wife and my two youngest children on a trip to Haiti. It was 3 years after the earthquake.IMG_1077

The streets were still in shambles. Thousands of people were living in tent cities. There was limited power. There was gunfire going off all night. There was no hot water and you certainly did not want to drink the water.

We worked with the Missionaries of Charity at a home for the dying. We saw children and adults dying from tuberculosis and AIDS. My son gave the young boy pictured above his favorite Boston Red Sox hat at the home.

We worked at a wounds clinic. There were patients that walked miles to get treated. Many of them would have been in a hospital if they were in the United States. If they had clean water and soap these wounds would have never festered and become as horrible as they were. We worked at an orphanage that had children with illnesses that could have been cured with access to doctors and the proper medications.

Upon returning from this trip I reflected on how much material things my family and I have and all the blessings we have. There was certainly a lot to contemplate and be thankful for. We live in a country that has freedoms. We have clean water coming out of a tap. It can be hot or cold. We have electricity at the flip of a switch. We have air conditioning for hot weather and heat for cold weather. We can go to the grocery store and buy just about any kind of food we could want.

“If you are grateful you act out of a sense of enough and not a sense of scarcity.” —Br. David Steindl-Rast

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7 Step Morning Routine

coffee at sunrise

How do you start your morning? Do you have a morning routine?

You will find that your days will be better if you start better. To start better, set up a morning routine before you head off to work. It may mean having to get up earlier. You will find if you take time for yourself and set up your day before you get in the busyness of the world your days will go much better.

I know some of you have young kids and this can be challenging. My challenge to you would be to get up 30 – 60 minutes before everyone else and have your quiet time.

Here is a sample 7 Step Morning Routine:

  1. Have a cup of coffee and pray
  2. Reflect on what you are grateful for
  3. What charitable acts or acts of kindness can you do for someone today
  4. Plan out your day
  5. Workout
  6. Shower
  7. Have Breakfast

Develop a morning routine. Write it down and stick with it for 30 days. Live intentionally!

Be Great!

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8 Daily Disciplines

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Over the years I have learned to live life intentionally you have to be disciplined. I learned about creating daily disciplines from John Wooden in his book Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court and from John Maxwell in his book Today Matters.

These are my daily disciplines. I have these on my desk and in the notebook that I use for taking notes throughout the day. I review these disciplines every morning before starting the day.

Daily Disciplines

  • Today……………….I will pray and deepen my relationship with Christ
  • Today……………….I will strive to keep my attitude positive
  • Today……………….I will spend time with my wife and kids
  • Today……………….I will eat healthy and workout at least 30 minutes
  • Today……………….I will properly manage my finances
  • Today……………….I will be a friend
  • Today………………. I will create memories
  • Today………………. I will make good decisions based on my core convictions

One day these todays will be a lifetime of days well lived.

What are your disciplines? Make your list today. It will change the way you go through the rest of your day and it will lead to a life well lived!

“I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs.” — John Wooden

Be Great!

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4 Steps to Attaining Your Resolutions in 2015

Habits Picture

How are you doing on your goals and resolutions for 2015? Congratulations if you are still on course!

If you have strayed off course and are not sticking to your resolutions this post may help you. To live life intentionally you have to form great habits. It takes discipline and courage to make changes and to instill great habits.

The first question to ask yourself is the resolution or goal you set something you really want to attain? How badly do you desire to obtain the results? To make constructive change you have to want to change.

A habit, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a usual way of behaving: something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way. It takes anywhere from 18 days to 254 days to form a habit according to a study by Phillippa Lally published in the European Journal of Psychology, October 2010.

To form great habits you have to break down activities in to steps. Then you have determine what activities you need to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.   

Getting fit and losing weight seem to be really popular resolutions. The resolution may be to join a fitness center. The goal might be to lose 15 pounds.  The process would be to set up the steps and determine by what date or timeline you are going to get the activity completed.

4 Steps

  1. Plan Your Steps With Target Dates
  2. Set Short-Term and Long Term Goals With Target Dates
  3. Measure Your Progress
  4. Reward Yourself

For example:

Step 1: Pick out 3 fitness centers to visit. Complete by 2/1/15

Step 2: Visit the fitness centers to tour and do a trial workout.  Center 1 by 2/5/15, Center 2 by 2/7/15, Center 3 by 2/9/15.

Step 3: Join fitness center of choice by 2/11/15

Step 4: Meet with a personal trainer to set up a workout program centered on your weight loss goals by 2/12/15

Step 5: Meet with nutritionist to set up a diet plan to meet your weight loss goal by 2/15/15

Step 6: Throw out all the junk food at your home and go to the grocery store to purchase your healthy food by 2/16/15

Step 7: Put your workout days and workout times in your calendar

Step 8: Set short term goals with your trainer and nutritionist

One of the things that is extremely valuable in keeping your resolution and hitting your goal is to create accountability. In this example if you hired a personal trainer and set weekly meetings with your nutritionist to track your progress you have created accountability.  On top of that you would be paying for each of these services so if you do not show up for the workout you still have to pay. You could also create accountability by having a workout partner to meet at the fitness center.

Some of your habits might include showing up for your workout on the scheduled date and time for 60 days. Meeting weekly with your nutritionist for 60 days. Taking weight and body measurements weekly. Doing a fitness test on a monthly basis. Shopping for your food on a weekly basis.

Just a side note, if your goal is to lose weight I am personally more in favor of body measurements and body fat measurement rather than the scale. The key is not how much you weigh, but how you look. If you like the way you look, the weight does not matter.

If this is one of your resolutions for 2015 the first month is going to be the hardest. If you have not worked out for a while you are going to be very sore for a few weeks. That is why the fitness centers are not as crowded in February as they were in January. Many people have great intentions, but they don’t succeed because they don’t stick it out long enough to create the habits and get past the sore muscles.

Set short term goals on the way to your long term goal and reward yourself. For example, you set a long-term goal to lose 3 inches on your waistline. You have an interim goal to lose 1 inch on your waist by 2/28/15. You hit the goal by the  target date. Celebrate and reward yourself with your favorite meal or dessert.

The first 90 days are the hardest of starting anything new.  Stay the course for at least 90 days and you will be on your way to creating great habits and hitting the goals you want to reach.

Be Great!

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Living Life Out of Balance

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One of the things I have strived to do over the years is to help myself and to help others become their best selves. I have found to be able to help others it all starts with me. I work to continuously improve in each area of my life. This includes my faith and spiritual life, my fitness and health, my relationship with my wife and my family, my finances, friendships and creating memories with fun.

There is a slogan that I picked up from a friend that says “Speed of the Leader, Speed of the Team”.  In order for you to lead and help others you have to help yourself first. This is similar to something that you hear on an airplane during the safety announcements. You are told in case of emergency place the air mask on yourself first. This is so you will have enough oxygen in order to help others to put their mask on. It all starts with you.

In our society most people determine “success” from a financial standpoint. Many times you will find that the financially successful people are not necessarily successful in some of the other 5 areas. To obtain a balance you have to strive to become proficient in all 6 areas of your life.

You will never live your life totally in balance. In fact, you need to learn how to live your life out of balance. What you have to be careful of is getting too far out of balance in any area of your life.

A great way to measure this is to take each of the 6 areas and rate them on how you are doing today on a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being best. Picture a bicycle wheel and 10 is the tire and everything inside of 1 through 10 are along the spokes going towards the hub? How does your wheel look? Does it roll or is it lopsided?

This is a good exercise check to do on a monthly basis to see where you are getting too far out of balance. The key is to be aware of where you are too far out of balance and make corrections before you crash.

I finish many of my notes, birthday wishes or emails with the saying Be Great!. When I say Be Great! I am saying be the greatest person you can become. Be your best self.

Be Great!