The older we get, the longer we have to observe ourselves and, if we do this effectively, to learn about our own passions and skills, our own blind spots and weaknesses and our own habits and routines. I spend a lot of time reflecting and ruminating, thinking about how I live and work and operate and trying to understand why I do the things I do, but more important, what the things I do are.
I, like many others, find myself to be a bundle of contradictions. In some areas of my life I'm creative and brimming with fresh ideas. In others areas, I struggle to see past the status quo. In some areas of my life I feel compelled to lead and to be at the forefront of progress. In other areas of my life I want to be sitting in the back row, being chaufferred along. In some areas of my life I'm driven and proactive and unstoppable towards my goal. In other areas, it takes only the slightest hurdle to stop me from making progress!
It's this third reflection that's been a source of inspiration for me of late. I recognised during the summer (this is something which periodically happens!) as I was preparing to walk the West Highland Way, that it was about time I did something about my physical health and appearance,; to lose some weight and lift some weights and get in better shape. Not to become vintage Ronnie Coleman or Fight Club-era Brad Pitt, just to lose some fat, add some muscle and improve the shape and health of my body a little bit.
But as I have said, this is not the first time I've had the urge to make such a change. At various times over my adult life I've taken up the weights and changed my physique, to differing degrees. Several times I've joined a gym or reached out to friends for a new gym programme and started lifting again, adding definition or mass, depending on my whim. Most dramatically, in 2020 I became obsessive about walking and counting calories during the quiet lockdown period and lost 75 pounds in 5 months. But with all of these ventures, I've experienced the firework effect. The idea has appeared like a rocket, soaring into the sky with light and noise, before exploding into a sparkle of colour, and fading out into the night sky, leaving no trace. The gym visits get further apart and eventually dwindle. The calorie count creeps up and eventually the counting stops as the 'consumed' overtakes the 'burned'. The ridiculous step counts drop off and a more sedentary life takes over.
So I've reflected on those occasions and what went wrong. They all started with clear goals, good intentions, a plan, but each one fell away. Why? Well the excessive walking was good when I was blessed with a lot of free time, but when that time is filled with the normalities of life returning to a post-lockdown world, spending 2-3 hours a day wandering about becomes much harder to justify or achieve. The calorie deficit was fun for a while but it became arduous and the process of tracking them was a bit tiresome. The various attempts at developing a gym regimen fell off because it felt like more and more of an effort to get to the gym.
In short, hurdles. There were hurdles in my way and, despite them not seeming particularly big, they were big enough to stop my progress. Time to walk. Effort of tracking calories and maintaining a deficit. Time and effort to get to the gym, to do something I was never hugely keen to do, at times of the day when I could do easier and more pleasant things (like stay in bed or watch TV).
I've seen the same thing play out in sports and in business, plenty of times. For many years, banks and mobile phone providers got away with crappy service by making it JUST ENOUGH of a ballache to change providers. It wasn't impossible, but it was just enough hassle that people couldn't be bothered to do it, so they stayed put. Even nowadays, customers have got so used to a simple one-click checkout service from the likes of Amazon, that when they experience a more traditional and more challenging checkout with rival providers, they often just give up and leave the items behind!
So what to do? Well there are parts of my life where hurdles which would put others off don't impact upon me at all. I've driven a 90-mile round trip, twice a week, to be involved with the East Kilbride Pirates, for 15 years, typically driving past multiple teams on the way. I left corporate life to go down the road of starting and establishing my own business, so I know it's not that I need to take the easy route in order to do anything. Just this particular, gym-related thing! So how do I proceed?
Well I have proceeded by identifying and removing as many hurdles as I can. I no longer attempt to walk huge distances by spending huge amounts of time on the road each morning, I get up and walk the dog a sensible amount, with the caveat that I must be back at the house by 8am. I aim for 10,000 steps a day, but with the recognition that so long as I average that over the week, where I can make use of the weekend for longer walks, that's ok. For eating, I don't track the calories, I just minimise the snacking by getting rid of snacks from the house. Make myself less likely to reach for something quick and unhealthy by not having those things to hand. And as for lifting weights? I've spent the last few months adding to my collection of kettlebells, picking up some second hand bargains to give me a good range of weights to allow for a versatile workout approach. Every day, once I get home from my walk, I complete a pretty time-intensive weight lifting circuit that takes about 15-20 mins. 20 is the absolute max. And I do it right outside the door to my house! No driving, no queueing for equipment, no long sessions, Just a short, sharp, extremely regular workout that is long enough to be impactful but short enough not to sicken me of it.
Will the removal of these hurdles allow me to maintain my routine and achieve my goals? Time will tell, but so far, so good. I started working out before I went on holiday with a plan of doing it every second day. That went so smoothly that on my return I decided to create some different sessions and do it every day. I've managed 20/21 days since then, and for the first time in a LONG time, I'm looking forward to doing it and not being left with the dread of having to do it again the next day. I'm seeing and feeling the benefits and tempering my obsessive tendencies to ramp up the volume and intensity and length, knowing it'll likely lead me to burnout. I'll report back in a few months and see how the removal of the hurdles has gone!
Your life will have hurdles too, but perhaps without having reflected, you're not yet aware that they're there. How could spending some time looking at the habits and routines that you want and comparing them with those you actually have, help you to pinpoint the hurdles that are getting between those two realities? What about for those you lead or work with? Where is there unnecessary friction in processes that is causing people to sidestep them and giving sub optimal outcomes? What can you do to help and remove those?
Let me know where you've experienced and even removed hurdles, in the comments!
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