Do Your Values Support Exercise?

“Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things… I am tempted to think there are no little things.” – Bruce Barton

Nothing of worth comes quickly or easily (okay, there is the occasional lottery winner…).  Think about the important things. Think about what you value in life: family, friends, health, faith, wealth, peace, authenticity.  Are any of these things easy to attain and once you’ve attained them, easy to keep?  Most people would say no.  Then why bother?  Because if you’re like me, the alternative of not having those things in my life is unacceptable.

But life gets in the way – the ringing phone, sick children, the laundry, your boss.  Unless we focus on our values we will never live those values, only long for them from afar.  So what are your top values?  Is health and fitness among the top or does it at least support your top values?  How do we get motivated and stay motivated?

This issue of values is key to getting and staying motivated. How do you find out what your values are? Sit down where you can be quiet and write down the top twenty things that are most important to you in your life, for example, having a loving family life, being a responsive parent, being fit and healthy, being financially secure. Doing that can be challenging enough. But then put them in priority order. If you could only have one of those values which one would you choose? Then keep choosing until you have the top 5 to 10 values most important to you. Is health and fitness one of your top-level values or does it support one of your top-level values? If it’s not in the top 5 to 10, then I would suggest that you stop bugging yourself about exercising. It’s not a high enough priority for you to make a commitment and take consistent action. And that’s OK. Being honest with yourself is crucial to living the life that you want.

If you determine that being fit and healthy is a top-level value, then what? Set the stage for success. Set up action plans that match your current level of ability and your interests. For instance, if you are a beginning exerciser don’t start off with a goal of running a marathon or of walking every day. You may get there, but start with walking for 20 minutes a day  twice a week and set progressive steps and action plans. Use SMART goals- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Think about what goals you have accomplished in the past and what helped you stick with your commitment and your action plan. What was I doing that made my efforts successful? Use your best strategies from the past. Take small steps.

Everyday affirm the values that you hold and the vision that you have for yourself. Create an action plan with goals or activities that you can achieve. Ask yourself, “What will it take?” and keep digging until you get to an action that you can take now. Think small steps. Set goals one week at a time so they are realistic for that week and you can succeed. This habit of setting weekly goals and logging your activity with some measurement like time or distance is one of the skills that people who have come to exercise regularly for over a year or longer have learned, according to research at Stanford University.  Don’t let perfectionism, all-or-nothing thinking or unrealistic goals undermine you. Be patient with results. Building new behaviors is slow and gradual but action leads to more action and momentum builds gradually.

However, motivation isn’t something that we get and it stays at the same level of excitement and energy. One thing to check is the distinction between, “Are you interested in exercising or committed to it?”  If we are at the level of interested, we can be easily distracted and change our mind about how important our intentions are. At this level, feelings determine actions. A commitment, on the other hand, is the ability to carry out a worthy decision even when the emotion or excitement of making that decision has passed. It means following through no matter what. We focus on actions not feelings. It’s a choice you create for yourself with your thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and self-talk.

So, what do you let get in your way?  What do you not do on a daily basis that would let you be the fit and healthy person you want to be and make you more successful in every facet of your life?  Are you willing to change it? 

Several months ago I heard Tom Wood speak on his 21 Secrets of Marketing Millionaires.  #13 was “Live on the slight edge.”  He says that the same thing created over time creates massive success or failure.  It’s not something you see today.  One missed workout will not be the end of you, nor will just one workout cause one pound of weight loss.  It all adds up.  He says to focus on what you can do everyday to be excellent.

When you focus daily on what you can do it may simply be a 12-minute workout in your living room or to walk the dog an extra block when that’s all that is feasible.  Your daily focus on your values and what you want in life is the key to living the life you want.  Live on the slight edge and look forward to success!

"In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently." -Anthony Robbins