by Craig Hysell
This article is not an admonishment, it is an assessment, of you by you.
Whatever results you find here are not “good” or “bad” unless you label them as such. Do not fall prey to the nonsense of labels. Your “story” is what you make it (like Facebook, but in your mind). Assess without labels and adjust accordingly.
Most of us workout roughly one hour per session. That leaves 23 MORE hours throughout the day to work with. A one hour workout will NEVER make up for the other 23 hours in the day if those hours aren’t aligned with your purpose.
Here’s The BIG Truth: your workouts are sexy, but they are not enough.
Your workouts are only a fraction of the bigger picture.
Your diet, your sleep, your mind and your spirit all play a role in your overall health, progress and happiness.
Your workouts DO NOT give you carte blanche to behave in a way that runs contrary to your goal of a healthier life. This will at best lead to dissatisfaction and at worst lead to depression.
You also don’t have to be perfect. So stop putting in all the effort without having any of the fun.
Fortunately, training, diet, sleep, mindset and spirit are symbiotic pursuits; they all fuel each other. None of this should be overwhelming, it should be fun and exciting.
It’s not a task, it’s a journey.
Here Are 5 Keys To Help You Focus on “The Other 23”.
1. What should I eat? Don’t eat like shit. Stay away from sugar and processed food most of the time. When it’s time to party, party. If you party a lot, don’t complain about the consequences. Eat whole foods: make sure your proteins, carbohydrates and fats will spoil if they sit out too long. Experiment intelligently until you find what works for you (this could take years) and rebel against the scale. It’s about how you operate all day and how your clothes fit, not what media says is “acceptable, pretty or worthy”.
2. Feed your mind. Read non-fiction books. Social media is not a book. If you don’t like to read, listen to books on something like Audible on your car rides. Be disciplined with it. Theodore Roosevelt, when he was President of the United States, took three 30-minute breaks EVERY DAY to read without interruption. You must learn to de-clutter your mind in order to find what makes you happy. This takes education, critical thought and self-awareness. Your fulfillment is up to you. Not your friends, not your parents, not social media: you. Go deeper than all the rest.
3. Sleep. Your room should be dark. You should sleep naked. Your phone should not be near your bed. Your alarm clock should face away from you. Sleep as long you need to in order to feel RESTED. For me, most of the time, that’s 7 hours. You might be different. Experiment. Try these.
4. Limit your social media time to raise your spirit. Social media is designed to be addictive. Five 5:00 increments/day helps me. And… there’s another aspect to Social Media to be wary of. Tony Robbins describes it like this “We live in a Facebook world where people fake their life, put it through ‘filters’, make it look different than it really is, tell stories that are totally full of it to make themselves look good, because we live in this false world where significance is more important than love”. Your spirit must be aligned with your authenticity or you will not be fully happy, fully effective and have your full impact on this life.
5. Know why YOU train. Every elite human I have ever met has mastery over the fundamentals. And they continue to practice them daily. It’s not rocket science and it’s never boring as long as you do this one “secret” thing: Accept that the secret sauce to success does not come with a “hack” or “a list” or a “quick fix”. Only the disciplined, deliberate, determined effort to continuously learn through any plateau, setback or boredom will make you happy. Do not wish for things. Work for them. How does one do this? Show up. Every day. And stop comparing your journey to somebody else’s.
How about you? What helps you move successfully through The Other 23?