Manage Your Time Wisely

Busy is not an excuse!

How often do you tell people that you are too busy and cannot make it to the gym? Are you really busy and failed to plan ahead or just not committed, or are you lazy? Years ago as a student, I was told by my coach a good athlete cannot be lazy, if your are lazy you are not an athlete, an athlete should be a model citizen, somebody that kids can look up to. Managing your time is your responsibility and nobody else’s, you own it, so take control!

One quality all successful people have is the ability to view a failure as an opportunity to learn and better yourself. This quality shows a resilience in their character and that they are determined to succeed. Most people will try a new venture, a project, a sport, however, once they fail they lose sight of the objective. However, the people who are successful have GRIT and see every failure as an opportunity to improve. This thought process can be used in any aspect of your life. TAKE AWAY MESSAGE: Learn from your mistakes, do not treat them as failures as you have learned from this opportunity. It may not have gone the way you wanted, but at least now you know what not to do. Step number 2 is trying again, a different approach. You will succeed.

Planning Ahead

One of the most important skills that an athlete must acquire is the ability to plan ahead.Planning ahead will ensure that you make time for your training, failing to do this will reduce the time you spend mastering your sport. Many athletes have day jobs to help support their lifestyle, balancing your work life along with your family and sports life can sometimes be tricky. The best advice I can give you is build a weekly planner, where you can write down all the things on your list, from work meetings or classes, trips, family obligations etc. This will help you figure out what time you will need to start your day, and what time you can be at the gym, taking into account all the other things you need to do in a day. Prioritize your tasks to be efficient.

Managing People

A big part of life is building and maintaining relationships. People in your life will need your time, so you will have to decide when it is important and when it can be postponed for after training. Sometimes you will have to say no, how this is relayed by yourself will depend upon how diplomatic you are. Saying no to a work colleague who wants to hang out for happy hour after work, when you are in the middle of your squat program is the right thing to do. Do not feel bad for saying no, if your colleague is a friend they will understand. Try postponing happy hour for your day off is a better alternative, providing you don’t over indulge.

“Build a weekly planner”

Developing Habits

Athletes are creatures of habits and routines. Everything that athletes do should be regimented and scheduled – its why you practice every day. In order to make the most of your time, you have to develop habits, or live like a robot. I realize that this sounds like a boring life but think about the objective. Think about the happiness and joy you will feel when you win or medal at a competition? The sacrifices you make now will help you achieve the dream you have.

Avoid Distractions

Benjamin Franklin said, “you may delay, but time will not wait”. The fact is you are
only as distracted as you allow yourself to be. Therefore, always keep your dreams at the forefront. As a motivated individual you need to live, breathe and sleep your dream. By keeping your goals at the forefront, you will not be distracted, thoughts such as, “I will train tomorrow” occur because you are distracted. During my training days, sometimes I would feel a little less motivated, but then I would think how much better I would feel if I got a new PR today, that is all it took to get me motivated.

“Prioritize your daily activities to be efficient”

Weekend

This is easy and quick advice, use your weekends wisely, do not spend them doing things that are counter productive to your strength goals, drinking too much, eating junk and sleeping late. Remember you grow when you are sleeping, that should be enough motivation!

“Tomorrow never comes – do what can be done today”

The BOTTOM LINE

For you to develop better time management and organizational skills, you must be intensely motivated by wanting to be a champion and be the best you can possibly be. You must want the results badly enough to overcome the natural inertia that keeps you doing things the same old way. Break away from your bad habits and make a change and picture yourself standing on the podium in 1st place! 2019 is here, make this your year when you changed your life for the better! As usual, I would love to hear your opinions on this subject, please remember this is just my opinion, you may feel differently, open to discussing. Hope your training is going well, Conquer Strength and Stay D3, All Day and Every Day. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


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