| Hi Friend!
Gorgeous day to you!
I had this random thought about working hard and I wanted to share it with you and see if you've experienced the same and/or are experiencing the same thing.
Growing up I was always encouraged to be a hard worker. I was taught that it was an admirable characteristic to have and a good work ethic to develop. People who were hard workers were both respected and admired. Then as I was starting Change Your Body Boot Camps, I learned that being a hard worker was good, but being a smart worker was better.
Pick a niche vs. trying to help everyone. Leverage technology vs. using paper. Make it scalable vs. 1 use. Create systems vs. Start from a blank slate every time.
There's plenty more, but you get the idea. So that's what I've been working on for the last 9.5 years I've been self-employed. Being a smart worker.
But...I like working hard. There's a sense of satisfaction that comes with it. A sense of physical fatigue, challenges overcome and accomplishments that come with it. So I worked long hours, all day everyday, and I got that satisfaction, but then my life was out of balance again, and I didn't like it, so I made a change, much like when I gave up my dream of working in professional sports, because I didn't like the work / life balance.
Working smarter wins again.
So I created CYBBC. I love it. I hope you can tell. I hope you also love it! And now I find 2 things happening. (1) I still yearn for the working hard feeling and (2) that working smarter is actually mentally & emotionally challenging (for me). This latter part is what I've been chewing on of late and I'm wondering if you've experienced it in the past or if you're experiencing it now.
It was hard (sort of) to implement the active lifestyle. To build in strength workouts, cardio minutes, recovery workouts, sports, ... recovery modalities, etc..., but not really for me, because I love this stuff, obviously.
It might however be difficult for you to hit your cardio minutes, goal every week. To build those minutes into your schedule and track them. To schedule self-care in the form of Boot Camp onto your weekly schedule and keep those appointments, especially when something fun is happening in your life, when life gets full & challenging and/or when you're feeling physically beat up.
I get that. Building an active lifestyle is a lot of physical, working hard. Especially when you have a concrete goals to change your health, body composition and/or performance. Your body gets tired. Your body gets beat up. Your mind gets tired. It takes a lot of consistency, commitment and grit to keep on the journey and overcome obstacles, distractions, plateaus and setbacks. A lot of reframing "I have to exercise" into "I get to exercise". Finding joy in scheduled self-care vs. any non-supportive thoughts you could have. Appreciating muscle burn & muscle soreness, sweating & being winded. This is the physical working hard that comes with exercise, training and living an active lifestyle. I love this stuff and I hope you will grow to love it too.
The mental and emotional parts that I find super challenging are the habit changes that become working smarter.
Boy-oh-boy, was it / is it difficult at first:
- To implement nutrition habits.
- To eat slow & stop @ 80% full (I was the skinny guy who ate fast to put on weight). Now things are different. I have to be more thoughtful & consistent.
- To start dinner 2.5 hours before I go to bed, so I don't go to bed full, so I get a better nights sleep.
- To not drink too much water before bed, so I don't wake up in the middle of the night.
- To pound 16 oz of water when I first wake and drink another 16oz before I leave the house.
- To eat oatmeal (I was the frosted flakes, sunny d and pop tarts kid growing up).
- To not get a t.v. so I wouldn't watch it.
- To not watch movies or sports after Vivi goes to bed (I'm working on no smart phone after dinner. I'm batting 1 for 7 right now, but I'll overcome this too).
- To not consume things with a negative cost, like:
- booze makes me feel great in the moment, but crushes me the next day.
- excessive salt and sugar make me feel hung over the next day
- excessive dairy and/or low quality dairy gives me a lot of mucus and lactose intolerance symptoms
- excessive refined carbohydrates make me feel sluggish and blah
- excessive processed foods make me feel sluggish and blah
- caffeine makes me also feel good in the moment, but then sluggish the next day, requiring more caffeine to get back up;
- excessive noise makes me feel hungover the next day
- To go to bed early because Vivi's getting up no matter what, so if I want a great day, I better get my rest.
- To start my day before she wakes (shave, comb hair, get dressed; exercise, read, write, journal, etc...) because everything is better if I'm prepared.
- Living 1 life vs. 2 lives. The old work hard / play hard, is false if there's a cost to the playing hard. Work hard / rest hard is a truth, and playing is part of resting hard, so long as it doesn't have a cost (sleep debt, insufficient recovery, hangovers, etc...).
- Living 7 days a week vs. 5 weekdays + 2 weekend days. This has been a huge change for me the last couple of years as old habits die hard. If I go to bed early during the week, but stay up late on the weekend, it makes Monday hard to get up and have a strong week.
- building my life around Quadrant 2 activities (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), that are important, but not urgent.
- being present & mindful during each moment.
- being early
- choosing relationships and people (especially fun people like you) over stuff, consumption, trivial things because these can ENERGIZE ME!
- setting boundaries (was super hard for me), limits, start & stop times and being o.k. with it.
- keeping everything, ..., just in case
- planning vs. being spontaneous and free spirited
- choosing what I let affect me and what I don't (people's problems are not my problems and vice versa; the news, Celtics trades or Deflategate, etc...).
I think you get the idea.
These are all examples of habit and behavior changes that are mentally and emotionally challenging for me and maybe even they were for you at some point in your life or are right now. You probably have similar ones and a whole bunch of different ones. The point is mentally and emotionally challenging habit and behavior changes are indirect examples of working smarter, because when practiced consistently they allow us both to present our best selves to the world and if we're our best selves more often, then we have our best chance to get the most out of working harder AND working smarter, and that feels good, gives you a sense of satisfaction and done repeatedly in the right direction can only yield the wins you're looking for in life or at least bring you closer to where you want to be.
So to wrap things up.
When you change emotional and mental habits, it can lead you to working smarter because you'll present your best self, more often to your world, which can yield faster, better and more consistent results & progress. But changing these habits FEELS HARD and if it FEELS HARD, it means we're also working hard, even if it's not physically hard like training is. So really we're getting the best of both worlds if you also like to work hard and desire to work smart. We're getting the sense of satisfaction that comes with overcoming challenges and the sense of accomplishment for achieving change. Heck there's even physical fatigue that comes with working smarter, because we all know changing things can be mentally and emotionally tiring, especially when you're doing behavior & habit changes and planning 7 days a week.
So in effect, if you want to work smarter, not just work harder, to have a better quality of life, keep working on changing your mental and emotional habits. Do it consistently, 7 days a week and you'll get more of the wins you're looking for and you'll get closer to the life you want to live.
And that's what I've been chewing on lately.
Your coach,
Mike Alves
p.s. kick a** weigh ins are tomorrow and Friday!
p.p.s. Private Measurements are Sat, Sept 23.
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