Before you get fit, you have to get happy.
I receive health tip text messages on my cell phone every afternoon. Yesterday it was a short and simple statement, “Before you get fit, you have to get happy.”
March and April were quite ‘downers’ for me. Writing was a struggle. Reading was a struggle. And getting fit was an absolute battle - a battle I lost. Needless to say, I haven’t been too happy lately.
In March and April I found it very tough to get up and out the door to gym or even to run outside. Most of my time spent was at my sister’s house. The remodeling of our kitchen is possibly a big part of my lack of motivation. I can’t keep complaining about work - my boss lets me work from home 2 days out of the week lately and I’ve been taking advantage of it. And spending most of my time at my sister’s house because of no kitchen means I’m there to eat. And I ate a lot.
My kids turned 4, 7 and 16 in March and April which is always depressing – watching your kids grow old. I haven’t watched a movie on DVD since February or something and I’m paying twenty bucks a month or something for Netflix. And I’m way above budget on spending due to birthdays and my newly acquired golf addiction.
So where do I go from here?
I want to improve at a accelerated rate in golf. I want to be ready for my first Marathon on June 3. And I have to start training for that Olympic distance Triathlon scheduled in September.
There isn’t any time to even take a deep breath as you can see. Balance in life is tough. But, before you get fit, both mentally and physically, you have to get happy.
I am happy after golf practice. I take my clubs to work and during lunch I putt at the local putting green or hit range balls for 40 minutes or so. It’s a perfect lunch activity. A medium bucket of balls gets me 40 minutes of practice and I find after 30-40 minutes of putting, I can’t putt anymore because it gets boring and I start forming bad habits to make it more interesting. It’s cheap too. I just eat a healthy snack to keep my energy up and I’m good to go. It’s a great way to lose weight!
After a long run I am extremely fulfilled. Long runs help me meditate. Sometimes negative thoughts fight their way into my brain, but I practice focusing on goals like: crossing the finish line at a Triathlon, running the last few miles of a Marathon, and visualizing my family rooting me on in a race.
I get inspired after I watch a great movie on DVD. I want to watch more, I want to discuss the movie with people, and, most importantly- it motivates me to write something special.
The other night my wife and I were able to get out late at night to a Film Festival where my short film was screening. It was way past my bedtime. But it was worth the fatigue because my wife looked great, the movies we saw were inspiring and I was motivated to get off my butt and start up another script.
But then I get distracted by things that seem, at the time, more important like: watching brain numbing shows on TV, or eating too much for dinner, or fantasy baseball, or just going to sleep without doing anything.
Focus and balance. Just like in The Karate Kid movie-a lesson that everyone, including me, should learn. In order to have balance in your life you must focus on what makes you happy. Be positive and get rid of all the negative thoughts out of the way.
Here’s a quote from Tiger Woods. “I go crazy when I watch guys in practice round play shots from a drop area. Why bring negativity into your thoughts? I only practice from where I expect to play.” Now that’s positive thinking. Don’t think about bad results, think about the good ones and focus on that.
I ran 10.5 miles the other day. I spent 3 hours with my son playing 18 holes of golf on Sunday. And… I’m writing another article for this week… So I guess I’m getting happy. I’m thinking positive. And that means I can get fit again!
