Building habits (restarting from scratch)
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
(Bill Gates)
As long-time readers will know, I broke my ankle in March. It still hurts from time to time, but I think it’s pretty much as recovered as it is going to get.
On Friday, I went to the gym for the first time in about nine months.
I’m going to restart the program I was using before, so did a series of exercises with an empty barbell.
It felt great.
The real challenge though is going to be doing the program consistently. It’s designed as a three-times-a-week program, but with my weekly schedule twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) is going to work better. Showing up, week in, week out, on rainy days and days when you are tired or when you are busy is really hard.
Doing things consistently is the key to success in any venture, and I am going to write about my weight training on here from time to time to keep myself accountable.
Of course, this same principle is true in saving, investing, work, writing, and pretty much any other field of endeavor. I suspect building up self-control and seeing success will transfer to other areas of my life, especially as historically I have not been great at doing things consistently (this blog is a nice exception to the rule!).
What do you want to achieve?
With the gym; roping in a partner that will expect you to turn up is a great motivator for the two of you, no one wants to be the first to break the commitment. Can you offer a student extra credits for just turning up on Mondays and Fridays:-)? Thanks for the timely reminder for myself, for me it’s abs and lower back, for now.
This is by far the most difficult part of my job. The vast majority of my schedule is up to me to plan and so much gets left by the wayside. Thankfully I’m not a professional plate-spinner.