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I recently finished reading a book called The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People written by a guy called Steven Covey. Personally I got a huge amount out of it so I thought I’d share with you what I learnt J
You see most of us are pretty busy being busy but one thing I learnt a little while ago now is that simply being busy doesn’t necessarily mean we are being effective. In fact normally it’s quite the opposite!
Being effective is the goal and these habits will have you well on your way. As you are reading through think about all the things you can do in each area to improve, in fact – write them down!
- Be Proactive
Realize that your decisions are key to determining the quality of your life! Take initiative and be responsible for the results you produce.
2. Begin With The End In Mind
Be clear on what it is that you value most highly and what you want to achieve – from here you can make sure everything you do lines up with what’s most important to you!
3. Put First Things First
Execute your tasks in accordance to importance, not urgency. Avoid getting stuck reacting to emails, phone calls etc… this is being busy – not necessarily being productive.
4. Think Win – Win
Genuinely seek mutually beneficial situations and deals. Ultimately this will be much better for everyone long term than if only one party gets his/ her way.
5. Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Listen intently with the purpose of understanding – most people listen with the intent of responding and are therefore thinking about what they’re going to say as opposed to what is being said to them.
6. Synergize
The team is infinitely more powerful than the sum of it’s parts. Involve other people and promote team work to achieve tasks and goals.
7. Sharpen The Saw
All of these things are great but if you run out of steam it’s pretty well impossible to keep it up. Sharpening the saw is all about renewal. You can imagine trying to cut down a huge oak tree – if you didn’t stop every now and again to sharpen the saw you would never reach your end goal of cutting the tree down. Exercise to maintain health, read to sharpen your mind and perform some kind of community service to rejuvenate your spirit J
If that made a lot of sense to you I would highly recommend grabbing the book and giving it a read. If it didn’t make sense….. you need to read it even more!!!
If you don’t like reading (like me) get an App call “Audible” and download the audio version.
Dedicated to your fitness success,
Jake
Have you ever been super motivated for a little while only to have it fade away and all of a sudden you lose all momentum?
Have you ever sat back and wondered how some people can keep charging on in one direction seemingly forever and overcome any obstacle that gets in their way?
You see there is a difference between inspiration and motivation….
Motivation will get you going short term but will soon fade out. Inspiration means you have a cause bigger than yourself which requires you to change your thinking, become someone else and achieve something for the greater good!
Here’s an example…. Sally sees a picture on facebook with a quote from someone famous and says “today’s my day – I’m going to go for a run!” So she goes for a run… The next day however it’s raining, Sally decides it’s best to stay inside so she doesn’t exercise that day – she lost her MOTIVATION!
On the flip side Joan decided she needed to lose at least 10 kilograms and lead a healthier lifestyle as she can see her children starting to adopt some of her unhealthy habits. She is INSPIRED to change for the sake of her kids!
Rain, hail or shine Joan is going to workout because her childrens health and future happiness are at stake!
You can see how inspiration and motivation are two completely different things.
The question is – Can we force ourselves into inspiration or do we have to wait for it to find us?
I believe you can force yourself into an inspired state! (yay!!!)
Here’s how…. So we know that at the essence of inspiration is a cause bigger than ourselves, so what’s your biggest reason for wanting to do what you want to do?
Eg: Using Joan’s example - Q: Why do you want to lose 10 kg? A: To set a great example for the kids….
Now once you’ve identified this core reason – make a list of at least 20 reasons as to how why and how you losing 10 kg’s will benefit your kids!
You see if your main reason for doing something is for the kids it means they are one of your highest values (same principle applies no matter what your main reason is). By creating this list you are appealing to your highest values and creating a clear link to your brain between performing the activities required and your highest values (the things that drive you).
I would recommend actually writing far more than 20 but start with that and go from there – the reasons you come up with the clearer the link and the stronger your inspiration!
Try not taking action after you’ve got 50 reasons that appeal to your highest values!
I hope that helped :)
Dedicated to your fitness success,
Jake
When it comes to your training routine is the enemy!
Why? It's simple, your muscles get very efficient at performing certain exercises if you do them all the time and therefore stop responding to them.
You see the way muscles get stronger is by being broken down or torn and then rebuilt - your bodys response to the damage caused is to rebuild the muscles bigger and stronger than last time...
With that in mind here's a few push up variations for you to try and spice up your workouts with :)
People often think that when trying to burn fat they need to exercise for really long periods of time….
Thankfully that’s not the case and it’s actually more beneficial to workout more intensely for shorter periods J
Let me explain…
So you want to change?
Sometimes you might just have some big event happen in your life which compels you to take massive action and make a big change. Most times however it’s up to us to manufacture it!
The good news is that there is a simple formula you can use to our advantage when trying to change something in your life.
So what is it?
