I told you on the last post of my mission to change my health and fitness. To do this I’m using a strategy derived primarily from The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss and juicing in the morning. I also have been at the gym 4-5 days a week and cutting back on alcohol. This morning was a tough morning to get out of bed, which can be hard for a business owner if you don’t have an appointment that makes you get out of bed. The weather here has been foggy and cold, so my nice warm bed was tempting me to just ditch the gym and watch TV. To make matters even tougher, I ate a little more carbs, fats, and junk food than usual while my parents visited, which isn’t their fault. It’s so easy to eat comfort food when you’re already having a good time with the people you love.

I have a strategy that I want to share when I find myself wanting to put off the important things in life and sit around being lazy:

1) Get coffee into your brain (if you don’t like coffee then try Yerba Mate)- I don’t encourage sugary or even artificially sweetened energy drinks because they will yo-yo your mood in a matter of hours.Coffee and Mate are great for getting your neurons firing, lifting your mood, have a more prolonged effect. In addition, as long as you don’t use sweeteners in your coffee you don’t have to worry about a strong glycemic crash. At the same time, try to eat a high protein/low carbohydrate meal.

2) Listen to or watch something cool briefly- After I sit down with the coffee if I’m having a slow morning, I throw on a really kickass mountain bike movie and watch it for a little bit. The scenes get me inspired visually and I know that if I want to once again return to endurance mountain bike racing (a big goal in the next two years) that I can do that right now by going to the gym. It’s an investment in my future and watching an inspiring movie makes the motivation stick. I left out reading, because it gets my brain into too much of an analytical mood and then I find myself starting to philosophize and reason out why it’s okay to skip another day.

3) Do something physical FIRST- It’s so easy to get a phone call while you’re re-setting your motivation and say “yes I’ll be there for an estimate”. Do that AFTER you work out. Healthy bodies create healthy attitudes, which fosters success. If you wait until after a sales call to do your workout  you never know what combination of things will make you put it off another day, digging the hole of motivation even deeper.

I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV, but if you use Google the phrase “effect of exercise on mood”, you’ll see why I wrote this. Marketing and website tactics are only about 20% of what drives a business. The real motor to any business is the salesperson behind that marketing and if you are lethargic and groggy in your communication during estimates, then nothing else really matters. If you’re off today, then try my approach tomorrow morning and let me know what happens.

 

Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•