The Baack Paack

Many of us are planners.  We spend most of our work day planning or following a plan.  The calendar dictates our schedule.  Where we need to be at a certain time, who we are talking with, what materials we are talk about. Daily, weekly and monthly schedules.   For the food preppers, when to pick up food, when to cook food, when to plan out the meals.  For some of us, our weekends are planned as well, weeks (and in my case) months in advance.

“BaackPaack Wall workout for Beast in June”
or
“Trail running for Super in May”

Calendar events like this dominate my weekend calendar schedule.  Planning becomes routine, and schedule, schedule, schedule, for the things that you “HAVE” to do becomes more important that the things that we want to do do each day.

Some of you might be reading this and think that this is going to be a post about spontaneity, freeing yourself from the calendar, not booking a weekend of activities, smelling the flowers, running naked through the wheat fields, and taking time for yourself.

You would be wrong

 

 

I am sure many of us have heard or can relate to this quote:

 

“No matter how busy a man is, he is never too busy to stop and talk about how busy he is”.

 

Many of us might be able to relate to that.  Hell, I have fallen into that trap myself, letting my head get all twisted around and stressed over being busy.  We often confuse being busy and being scheduled.  We look at a full calendar of appointments and think! Damn, busy day – vs.  Ok..I am highly scheduled.

Jay, what are you talking about?  A full schedule means I am busy!

That is the first reaction that most have, yes.  But being busy often has a negative notion that you can only work on one thing at once.  “Please don’t bother me right now, I am busy”.  Or, “I am way to busy to eat right now “, or “Today was so busy, I don’t have time for anything else”.
I would counter with:   “Within a schedule is freedom.”

If you are scheduled, you know what is coming next.  You know when you have to apply effort and when you have to prepare in order to meet the demands of the schedule.  If you are scheduled, you have already set aside time for yourself – because you scheduled it.

Go with me on this.

You wake up, eat, (I really hope you are eating at the house and not in the car on the way to work) get dressed, prep the family, and drive to work. At some point in this morning ritual, a tiny voice, buried very deep in the back of your head whispers…

“Hey, I really should workout”

But you dismiss it without another thought.  Nope!  I am too busy right now.

Your drive to work, park the car, head into the office, sit at your desk or your operating position and you look at your schedule.  It doesn’t matter if you drive a bus or run a company, everyone has some sort of schedule that they pay attention to each day.  You follow your daily schedule.  Do this in an hour, attend this meeting, be at this location by this time, get this amount of work done by this time.

A voice buried very deep in the back of your head now says…

“Hey, I really should workout”

But you dismiss it without another thought.  I am too busy right now.

You eat lunch (what? you didn’t?  ok, we can talk about that later as well), and finish the afternoon schedule.  Meetings, production, pick up this, move that, get this done.  You drive back home, thinking about they day you had as well as what is for dinner, the kids, the cat, the dog, the house payment, that damn dingdong in front of you that just crossed 4 lanes without a blinker and cut you off, the 97 degrees on the external car temperature gauge,  etc.  You arrive home, drop you bag and then it hits you.

BOOM.

 

A voice in your head now is now screaming..

“Hey, I really NEED to workout“

What is the reaction by 99.9% of the American public?    Say it with me.

 

“I am too busy.”

 

I have to feed the kids, family, the animals, pay bills, mow the lawn, or tens of thousands of other bull shit excuses to keep your decision to not better yourself rationalized in your own head.   For 8 to 10 to fourteen hours a day, many of us provide for someone else.  Cater to their needs, their demands, their schedules.  It is called work.   We need to work in order to pay bills.  I totally understand that.  However, how many of us ALLOW our own life go to hell for it?   Either in lack of proper nutrition, lack of sleep, or lack of exercise?  Many.

We arrive home from work and find solace in sitting on a couch, staring at a TV, and watch someone else’s life unfold in front of us.  And our constant excuse?

” I am too busy”

 

Here is my late night infomercial message:  ” If this is you, and you want to change, It is time to schedule your life.”

Now Jay, what the hell does that mean?

It means, you NEED to schedule ‘Me Time’ into each day.

What is ‘Me Time’?

This is my definition of ‘Me Time’ that I have been evolving over the past several years:

 

• M anage        – Start to look at your personal time as something that is managed
• E  xercise       – Something, each day

 

• T  iming          – Find a time during the day that works for you
• I   ntegrity        – Do this for yourself
• M easurable  – Track what you are doing
• E  ducation    – Learn, adapt and grow

 

Manage: 
If you want to stop beating yourself up about your lack of progress with your workouts or nutrition, the start managing your personal time as it if is an appointment at work.  Think of your time as an appointment with your internal boss.  You don’t want to cancel meetings with your boss, that could lead to you not progressing the way you want in your professional life, or get put on the “naughty list”.  If you look at your personal time as important as work time, and manage it on a schedule – then you are one step closer to getting it done. If putting it on the calendar makes it official, then do it.   I have all my weekend races scheduled on my work calendar for a couple of reasons:

1. So others know not to schedule me during that time
2. So I see the events each and every event as a reminder that I need to stick with the “E” of ‘Me Time’.

 

 Exercise:
Yes, it sucks.  Build a bridge and get over it.
Exercise pushes you out of your comfort zone and makes you sweat.  Yes, real women sweat, as much as the “Suzi Homemaker” guides of the 1950’s might have told you different.  If you want to change, you need to sweat.  Even sweating for fifteen (15) minutes will start to get you to where you want to go.  Sitting on the couch thinking about sweating will not get you there.  Get up and start moving.  Sweat stains are cool. They are BaackPaack approved. 😉
I know folks with sweat stains are working.  I can see it.

Those that think that sweat stains are not cool –  are saying that because they are not working as hard as you.
Screw them and start moving.

(Photo taken from rwdaily.runnersworld.com)

 

 Timing:

You need to find a time of the day to schedule your ‘Me Time’ that works for you.  I have a fellow member of the BaackPaack who runs late at night.  Or should I say VERY early in the morning, (midnight / 1 AM kind of early).  For him, this works.  I think he’s crazy, but it works for him.  The temps are cooler, the streets are less populated, and he can focus on himself for an hour.   Others prefer to start their day early and get their workout done with a “group class”, such as Spin, or Core work, or Body Combat – all which have the benefit of holding themselves accountable to others, as you can tell someone that you are going to the class to help motivate yourself to get up and go.  Don’t be that person who says “I am going” then bail on the event… You don’t want to be that person, and other people don’t want to hang with that person. If your going to go, and tell others you are going, have some integrity and GO (more about that in a minute).
Here in the desert of AZ, you have three choices.  Get up early and workout when it is cooler (sunrise), wait until after work and the sun goes down (sunset), or workout inside.   I choose option 1, (with a smattering of group workouts – option 3) I workout early in the morning for a few reasons.

• Less people on the roads (if I am running for the workout)
• I get to see the sunrise.  There is something magical or spiritual about seeing the sunrise.  When I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1995, I always loved watching the sunrise from my tent.  Yes, sunsets can be prettier, however, there is something very motivating about watching the dawn of a new day and seeing it happen in front of you.  It is very hard to go back to sleep after watching the sun come up.  However, it is REAL easy to fall asleep after watching the sun go down!
• I can ride that ‘high’ all day long.  If I get my workout done early, I can cross it off the calendar and know that I am starting my day with a WIN!  Mission accomplished!  Meetings at work are not going to bother me, because I just ran three miles. When has a 1 hour business meeting ever been as difficult as a three mile run?  Never.
• It is quiet.   Early in the morning there isn’t a lot going on.  It gives you more time to get in your own head and think about other things (NOT WORK).  This helps to pass the time when running.  You know that feeling when you jump in the car, heading home from work and the next thing you realize is that you are pulling up to the house? Not really remembering how you got there – as your head was thinking about something else?  Yeah, you CAN get that way with running. It took me a while to let it happen, but once it did, it was and is amazing. You pulse drops, you pace increases, and your brain is off solving mathematical equations or thinking about chocolate rainbows.. What?  (Yeah, I wanted to see if you are still paying attention).  Exercising early allows me to go to this mental place and makes my workout go by faster.

 

  Integrity:

You have to do this for yourself.  If you are exercising for some other reason, or some other person,  it will fail.  You have to find an internal reason why you are doing this.  What is your motivation, your spark? What internal desire needs to be met in order to put yourself through not only setting but maintaining a personal schedule?  You need to find this reason, accept it, and hold yourself accountable to it.  Some of us call this being a “Promise Keeper”, a person with integrity.  You strive to have integrity at work, start to strive to have integrity with yourself.

 

 Measurable:

We all hate busy work.  You know, the tasks that we are assigned because someone above you doesn’t know what to do with you? Pointless expended effort that pays no real results.  By making your ‘Me Time” measurable, it allows you to track where you have come from and where you are going to.  This leads to having SMART goals that I talked about in an earlier post.  Make sure you track what you are doing.  Write it down ‘old school’ with a pen a paper, or save it via a fancy new app on your phone and post to the web.  Regardless of the tool you use, pick one and go with it.  This allows you to assess your progress, measure your success and establish new mental routines of acceptance. Getting you to a place where you are looking forward to your ‘Me Time’ in order to see what you are able to achieve.

 

 Education:

One of the largest complaints I hear in the education profession is the lack of “Professional Development”.  Time devoted to personal learning and mastery of a new skill set or education level to allow you to progress in your field.  The same applies to your personal growth.  Keep reading.  Blogs, magazine, books, podcasts.  Stay hungry for information.   Use your ‘Me Time’ as a time to not only increase your cardio capacity, but your capacity for understanding.  Listen to audiobooks while you workout, or dedicate time to read that latest article of setting goals or motivation to keep pushing hard in your workouts. Read up on common injury prevention BEFORE it happens to you. (Humm… maybe it is time to retire those running shoes from 2001)
Stay mentally hungry on the quest to become a better version of yourself.

 

Your highway of life isn’t this clear.  It is filled with traffic, pot holes, and breakdowns.  That is life.  But what you make of your future, starting today – THIS instant- and going forward, is totally up to you.  Celebrate and plan for ‘Me Time’.   Understand that a ‘healthy you’ is a better you for your own well being, your family and your production at work.  You can change and achieve great things.  From walking your first mile to running a marathon, to loosing any amounts of body fat.  YOU can control all of it.   Schedule some ‘Me Time’, and get started.