Do the thing

Unsurprisingly, we do the things that get rewarded.  Maybe that means we show up to work because they pay us.  In school, we bothered to organize our binders because the teacher was going to grade us on following the directions.  At some level, we are all Shaggy and Scooby, working for the Scooby snacks.

We can harness this to our advantage.  One of the privileges of being a grown-up is that we are in charge of our own Scooby snacks.  We can figure out what kind of treats (preferably not food treats, unless we really really love celery) motivate us and give them to ourselves when we do things we want to do.  I have made it through more than one workout because I knew I got to go sit in the hot tub afterwards.  Maybe reaching a milestone (finished a 5K, lifted a new record, hit an intermediate goal weight) deserves a celebratory massage.

The thing is:  we have to follow through with the reward.  Do the thing and then enjoy!

One

Sometimes it seems like we have too many things to work on.  It might even be true.  However, when it comes down to it, we really can only do one thing at a time if we want to do it well.

Let’s say, for example, that we want to lose weight.  We have been hanging out with our BFF (Best Furniture Forever), the couch, for the last six months and have been subsisting on a diet of pizza, soda, chocolate, and bananas (because no one has only bad habits).  We know we need to do cardio, lift weights, eat vegetables, cut out the sugar, hydrate, stretch, and meditate.  If we try to do all those things at the same time, we’ll be lucky if we can crawl back to the couch the next day.  Choose one.

I have two suggestions for which one to choose.  One is to pick the easiest one.  Maybe we’re already really tired of pizza and there’s a salad bar at the store on the way home from work.  Making that substitution for a week can get things rolling and give us a sense of success.  Or maybe we have a dog who would love to take a walk every morning and evening instead of just visiting the yard.  We already have the dog and the leash and all of a sudden we are magically doing our cardio.

The second option requires a little bit more thought.  We can pick the one that gives us the most leverage.  Which choice that is will vary from person to person.  Some people find that weight lifting makes all the difference because of the way it changes the metabolism or because it creates a sense of power or because they find a buddy or trainer to do it with.  Other people might find that cutting out the processed food reduces calories and increases energy so much that it is the change-maker.

Whatever we choose, we commit to doing that one thing until it is as automatic as brushing our teeth in the morning.  Then we add the next positive change.

Chimney-Building, Anyone?

Never ask your kids for blog ideas.  Especially just after visiting the Winchester Mystery House.  They will suggest stairs, lots and lots of stairs, in varying sizes as appropriate for one’s level of arthritis.  They will try to figure out what sort of exercise a door to nowhere (one that opens on a two story drop) could be used for and will suggest running from ghosts as cardio.  (Maybe your kids are different.)

However, they do, sort of, have a point.  We can do workouts wherever we happen to be using the environment around us.  This is the basic premise of boot camps that meet in parks and use benches and playground equipment.  Improvising a hotel room workout can make the difference between maintaining progress while traveling and coming home needing bigger pants.  I often say that if I could choose only one exercise for people to do, it would be squats.  If I could choose two, the second one would be pushups.  Those can be done anywhere, without stuff.

And if ghosts motivate us to run, I suppose that’s good, too.