Do you wake up on a Monday dreading going into work?
As you go through the week do you spend your time wishing for the weekend to come?
And finally, do you spend the weekend dreading Monday all over again?
If so, it's time for a change.
One life.
This is not a dress rehearsal.
We have one at bat, one chance to do everything, make all the difference, and leave the world a better place.
If you agree with that, then why are you spending over 70% of our time on earth (Mon-Fri) miserable, wishing for the 30%?
I read an interesting quote the other day...
"People spend more time planning their vacations than they do their life."
Really?
Ok, so what if you're nodding your head to all of this but you're not sure what to do to fix it.
First off, you're not broken, all of us struggle with this, and it's just a matter of slowly chipping away at it.
However, I truly believe life is too short to wake up miserable. There are no redo's, this is the only life we have, so why spend it with people you don't enjoy being around doing something you hate?
It starts by having a clear vision.
A clear north star.
Once you know the "end" you can reverse engineer everything back.
Today, my goal is to give you some questions that you can start to ponder as you work towards spending a little more time planning your life than you do planning that trip to the Bahamas.
Question 1...
What are your values?
When you think of values, think of your guardrails.
You're on this journey (the road), going a million miles per hour, what are the guardrails that keep you on track.
For me, my values are happiness, family, and legacy.
So, when it comes time to creating my ideal life, my ideal day, I always go back to those three things.
If it's not going to make me happy, help my family, or leave an impact on someone else's life and improve my legacy, I'm not going to do it.
Let's look at a few examples...
Why do I spend an hour of every day writing this e-mail?
I'm sure there are more "productive" things I could be doing.
However, it makes me happy and ideally leaves one person a little better after reading it so that helps slowly chip away at my legacy.
What about cutting the grass?
I pay to have a landscaper come to our house because right now cutting my lawn does nothing for my values.
It doesn't make me happy, it takes time away from my family, and it doesn't leave the world a better place, so I'm not going to do it.
You can see if I didn't have my values in place, I'd probably be cutting the lawn.
And don't pull the money excuse thing, because the $50 that I spend on landscaping is the same as what someone who really values socializing spends on restaurant and bar tabs, or the person that really values nice clothes spends at the store.
There's no right or wrong, it's just what's important to you.
Now, the cool thing is, no one person's values are alike.
What if one of your values is the environment, and you love being out every day planting and growing things, awesome, do it every day.
Or, what if one of your values is also happiness and you love the satisfaction of seeing the fresh cut lawn, knowing that you did it yourself.
Then you should be doing it as often as you can.
I'm not telling you how to live your life, but I am telling you to spend some time planning it.
So, now that you have your values, and you know your guardrails it's time to move onto question two...
What's your ideal day?
Seriously.
Now, I'm not talking sitting on the beach with a drink in your hand ideal day, I'm talking what do you see yourself doing every single day.
Sitting on the beach with a drink in your hand sounds great, but I think we can all agree that three things would happen...
Your bills wouldn't get paid...
You'd become really unhealthy...
And ultimately, you'd get bored and lonely after a week or two.
So it sounds good, but what does your ideal day look like in real life?
What time do you wake up?
What do you do at work?
What kind of people do you surround yourself with?
What time do you get home from work?
What do you do after work?
All of this is important.
Because it becomes vital as you look at what makes you happy.
If you love sleeping in until 9am and that's super important to you, maybe you find a job that doesn't require you to start until lunch time (I'm thinking restaurant/hospitality/medical) field.
If you value being home by 5pm every night you better not work in the fitness industry. That's our busiest time of day, and it will always be, so you're most likely going to have to work during that time.
If you value being around people and you're an IT person, that could help you make a job decision.
Job one has you sitting at a desk working on projects.
Job two has you going around troubleshooting with others.
If you value people you should take job two, if you value independence and working by yourself job one sounds like a better fit.
Again, no right answer, it's just important to have some guardrails in place.
So, I'm not saying let's all work two days a week and sip on margaritas all day long.
What I'm asking is do you know what your ideal day looks like?
Map out from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed what your ideal day looks like.
Then, slowly chip away at your daily decisions to work closer to that ideal day, keeping your values in mind and using them as guardrails.
It's not going to happen overnight, and I'm not asking you to quit your job tomorrow if you're miserable, but your daily actions should be moving you towards your ideal day.
Finally, I used careers examples a lot for context, but this applies to all aspects of life.
Are you happy in your relationship?
Do you love your fitness routine?
You do know that with the right people and programs fitness can be fun, right?
Life's too short for anything but doing what you love.
So, your two questions for today...
What are your values?
What is your ideal day?
If you can take the time to answer those you'll be making great progress, and it will rewarding knowing that your spending more time planning this one life we have then your next vacation.
1% Better.
Dedicated to Your Success,
Doug Spurling
PS: What does this have to do with fitness? Fitness is just a vehicle for a happier and healthier life. You also need to factor in the other 165 hours a week you're not working out if you truly want to live life to the fullest.