Sometime I just can’t be bothered to go for a run outside.
I come up with all the classic excuses:
- It’s cold
- It’s wet
- By the time I’ve got out of my house it’ll take too long
- I need to do something else in the house.
- I need to be in for a delivery
- I’m looking after the kids
But I know I want to (and should) get a session done. Sometimes it might be a question of motivation, and I can go through my discipline steps to get me out.
But there also might be a genuine reason why getting out the house on that day is difficult. When that’s the case, I need a minimum fuss and efficient way to do it.
The fix? Super simple. Super easy. I do the session inside. Obvious isn’t it. But it’s really just another step to eliminate as many excuses as possible.
By making the threshold level of effort to do the exercise as low as possible it’s almost impossible for me to make an excuse or have a reason not to get it done.
My favourite indoor session is jogging on the spot for 30 minutes. Yup, jogging on the spot, in my living room, in one place, for 30 minutes.
It’s super straight forward, incredibly time efficient, and means I can watch, listen, or keep my eye on something whilst I’m doing it.
I’ve got other indoor workouts I use as well. But more about those another day.
Nelson Mandela was my inspiration for this approach.
In his book ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ he talks about how he kept fit in prison. One of the key things he did was jog on the spot in his cell because his freedom of movement was so restricted.
Well, if it was good enough for Nelson Mandela then it’s good enough for me.
His approach taught me that no matter your situation there is nearly always a way to get your training or session done.
It’s so easy to create excuses. But this just results in disappointment later on.
In the moment I’ve let myself off doing the thing that felt uncomfortable, and that feels good. But it doesn’t take long to start feeling another and frustrated.
I’ve let myself down by not doing what I know I should have done. That’s no good. It hurts because it doesn’t align with my view of myself.
If I keep on doing it, it starts to eat away at my self image. That’s no good. The mindset must be backed up by action.
So what’s the answer?
Eliminate ALL excuses. Or at least as many excuses as possible.
Remove as many barriers as possible to achieving what I want to do. Think as broadly as possible in working out how to get rid of all blockers, including things that don’t fit conventional wisdom.
Make the bar to achieving it so low that it’s almost impossible to fail.
Motivation, discipline, and being firm with myself have its place. But almost by definition they are used when I need to overcome resistance.
Much easier is to remove the barriers and obstacles that are causing the resistance in the first place. Then the level of effort to get the session becomes so low it’s almost impossible for me to avoid it.
This isn’t about me doing my dream workout. It’s about getting what I need to get done in the easiest way possible.
