We’ve all been in a conversation (with someone else or internally) where we say we will try to complete a task. We also know what the word try means. Trying is not doing. We try to find time for things we don’t want to do. More accurately in health, we try to do things we want to do, but don’t think we are able to do. We try to make it to places we don’t want to go and we try not end up doing things we don’t want to do. What happens when we try to do things? Well, often they don’t get done.
Why don’t we get things done when we try? The biggest reason was already stated: trying is not doing. Trying doesn’t work because it has built in doubt. When you say you are going to try something, you are implying that it isn’t going to be easy or natural. You are building in the expectation that it may not happen. When you start something thinking about how it may not happen, guess what, it may not and usually does not happen.
I hear this scenario a lot with exercise, diet, smoking and a long list of other changes that people want to make in their lives. We all want to be healthy and do things that will help us be healthy. Whether you want to exercise more, eat different foods or any other healthy change, you know what it feels like. Hopefully you are doing these things and not just trying to do them.
These are all things we “want” to do, so it is funny to me that we keep trying to do them as opposed to just doing them. It’s funny because we continually tell ourselves that that we are trying or we are going to try. If we are just trying, we are simply saying that we don’t really want to do it or don’t think it will happen.
Think about it with your friends and a social gathering. When someone is “going to try to stop by” are you waiting for them as if they said “YES, I’m coming”? No way. You are more likely to assume they are not coming. We hear the word try and the tone of their excuse and assume that they will not be coming. Not that trying means they automatically won’t come. If they do it will be a bonus, but we don’t expect them to come.
It’s the same thing when we do it to ourselves. When we say we are trying to do something that we want to do, we are just hoping we can do it. We are not planning to do it or better yet…doing it. Therefore, when something doesn’t get done, we already have the excuse ready: “oh well, I’ll try that again later”.
We’ve discussed the importance of habits before and likely will again. Trying can become a habit. When that happens, it only gets more difficult to stop trying and start doing. If you are already in the habit of trying, you can still change this. It often starts by taking a look at your routine. Whether we are talking about your health, work, relationships or any other area, you know whether you are doing what you want to be doing.
How does your routine look? When you think about what you want to be doing, are you actually doing it or are you just trying to do it?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Want Energy?
As an entrepreneur, I need a lot of energy. It takes energy to manage all areas of my business, not to mention the rest of my life. In my 2+ years in business, I have discovered something else about energy. I have discovered that energy is more than just something that comes out of the wall socket. It is something that we create. That’s right, we all generate our own energy.
Energy is what drives my business. Energy is what drives all businesses. Not only is energy necessary to keep you functioning, but energy can determine the direction of your life as well. So in fact, energy drives you. It doesn’t just drive your work, but it actually drives you as a person. The important discovery I made is that there is a formula for energy and how it affects your life.
The formula is simple. You may have even heard it before in other areas. “You get what you put it”, “You get what you give” and other phrases like that are very true. The more energy you put into your life, the more results you get out of it. This is true and I have seen it firsthand with individuals, businesses and in my own life.
I see it in many businesses as they try to drive their culture toward a vibrant, high-energy environment. It works on an individual level as well. In fact, in order for it to work, each individual has to adopt it. Perhaps that is the easiest way to understand the energy formula.
Picture this:
You are tired after a day of work. You go to bed and wake up tired again. The next day feels the same. Getting up and going to be tired.
This doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but it is reality for many people. Unfortunately, this may be your reality. Not only have I talked to hundreds of people living this way, but I’ve also been there myself.
How can you get out of this? How did I get out of this? Well, I’ve written about the energy cycle and how you can move upward or downward depending on how active you are. That is one way to look at it strictly from an exercise perspective. I would like to step back and look at this from a wider perspective. There is more to life than exercise. Despite my passion for health, I know that not everything revolves around exercise.
I also know that you need energy to make it through the day. Exercise can be a way to get that energy. Others use caffeine, hydration, food or other methods to push through the daily grind. But it’s the daily grind itself that we need to look at. When I step back and look at the big picture, I see many opportunities for increased energy. In fact, everything we do is a chance for energy to propel us.
Do you find yourself saying: “I don’t have the energy.” Or “I can’t do that because it will take too much out of me.” If you have said this, you are choosing not to put energy into these tasks. What do you get for results? Not good? Not a ton of results or high-energy coming back to you? I’m not surprised, are you?
It comes down to our simple formula: you get out what you put in. If you put in a little, you get a little in return. We’ve all worked with someone in school or at work that only contributed minor effort to a group project. Everyone on the team may have gotten the same grade, but how much respect did you give the person that put in minimal energy? Did you want to work with them again? Did you actually end up working with them again? Not likely.
This is why the energy formula is so important in your personal life. I’m not just talking about health either. I’m talking about every aspect of your life.
Picture this:
You have goals. You know what you need to do in order to accomplish these goals. You know that the more you put in, the more you will get out of this process. As you get started you realize that as long as you are acting toward your goals, it’s only as hard as you make it. In fact, the more you do something, the easier it becomes.
This goes for your exercise, your diet choices, work schedule and everything else in life. It is easy to think about whether we are capable of something or not. It is easy to say “No, that’s too hard.” Those are the easy choices in life. Or rather they are the easy decisions to make when faced with a challenge.
I like to look at it a little differently. I don’t think about what I can or can’t do. I think about what I want or don’t want to do. As I work with my coaching clients, we discuss goals in terms of what they want to accomplish. We don’t talk about what they should do and might try to do because they should. We talk about what they want to do. The choice really becomes: how much am I willing to do?
Once you decide you are willing to do something, you have another choice. The choice, “how much am I willing to do?” translates to how much energy I am willing to put in. Knowing the formula of getting out what you put in, the choice seems easy.
It seems easy to me. It seems easy to anyone that is reaching their goals. Anyone putting in high energy and getting good results will continue to make that choice over and over again.
Are you one of these people? If not, do you want to be one of these people? How much energy are you willing to put in?
Energy is what drives my business. Energy is what drives all businesses. Not only is energy necessary to keep you functioning, but energy can determine the direction of your life as well. So in fact, energy drives you. It doesn’t just drive your work, but it actually drives you as a person. The important discovery I made is that there is a formula for energy and how it affects your life.
The formula is simple. You may have even heard it before in other areas. “You get what you put it”, “You get what you give” and other phrases like that are very true. The more energy you put into your life, the more results you get out of it. This is true and I have seen it firsthand with individuals, businesses and in my own life.
I see it in many businesses as they try to drive their culture toward a vibrant, high-energy environment. It works on an individual level as well. In fact, in order for it to work, each individual has to adopt it. Perhaps that is the easiest way to understand the energy formula.
Picture this:
You are tired after a day of work. You go to bed and wake up tired again. The next day feels the same. Getting up and going to be tired.
This doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but it is reality for many people. Unfortunately, this may be your reality. Not only have I talked to hundreds of people living this way, but I’ve also been there myself.
How can you get out of this? How did I get out of this? Well, I’ve written about the energy cycle and how you can move upward or downward depending on how active you are. That is one way to look at it strictly from an exercise perspective. I would like to step back and look at this from a wider perspective. There is more to life than exercise. Despite my passion for health, I know that not everything revolves around exercise.
I also know that you need energy to make it through the day. Exercise can be a way to get that energy. Others use caffeine, hydration, food or other methods to push through the daily grind. But it’s the daily grind itself that we need to look at. When I step back and look at the big picture, I see many opportunities for increased energy. In fact, everything we do is a chance for energy to propel us.
Do you find yourself saying: “I don’t have the energy.” Or “I can’t do that because it will take too much out of me.” If you have said this, you are choosing not to put energy into these tasks. What do you get for results? Not good? Not a ton of results or high-energy coming back to you? I’m not surprised, are you?
It comes down to our simple formula: you get out what you put in. If you put in a little, you get a little in return. We’ve all worked with someone in school or at work that only contributed minor effort to a group project. Everyone on the team may have gotten the same grade, but how much respect did you give the person that put in minimal energy? Did you want to work with them again? Did you actually end up working with them again? Not likely.
This is why the energy formula is so important in your personal life. I’m not just talking about health either. I’m talking about every aspect of your life.
Picture this:
You have goals. You know what you need to do in order to accomplish these goals. You know that the more you put in, the more you will get out of this process. As you get started you realize that as long as you are acting toward your goals, it’s only as hard as you make it. In fact, the more you do something, the easier it becomes.
This goes for your exercise, your diet choices, work schedule and everything else in life. It is easy to think about whether we are capable of something or not. It is easy to say “No, that’s too hard.” Those are the easy choices in life. Or rather they are the easy decisions to make when faced with a challenge.
I like to look at it a little differently. I don’t think about what I can or can’t do. I think about what I want or don’t want to do. As I work with my coaching clients, we discuss goals in terms of what they want to accomplish. We don’t talk about what they should do and might try to do because they should. We talk about what they want to do. The choice really becomes: how much am I willing to do?
Once you decide you are willing to do something, you have another choice. The choice, “how much am I willing to do?” translates to how much energy I am willing to put in. Knowing the formula of getting out what you put in, the choice seems easy.
It seems easy to me. It seems easy to anyone that is reaching their goals. Anyone putting in high energy and getting good results will continue to make that choice over and over again.
Are you one of these people? If not, do you want to be one of these people? How much energy are you willing to put in?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Make It Happen.
In last week’s Business Health Strategy entry we discussed a simple, yet profound act. It seems natural, but unfortunately it is not. The title and subject was: Think about it. One would think that a thought would come easily, but when you look at our biggest problems in health and healthcare, the act of thinking about it is what we often go without.
See Feb. entry http://businesshealthstrategy.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-about-it.html for more detail on this and how it also applies to you as an individual.
Thinking about it is very important for businesses and for each of us as individuals. We need to know there is an issue, understand our best option to change the issue. In health and in business, we are missing this step. Believe it or not the next step would be even easier if we just took the time to think about the big picture.
What is the big picture? We discuss it often. It is the fact that as a society, our health is declining and our healthcare system is in trouble. It doesn’t have to be. By thinking about it, the solution is clear and much less difficult than you think it is. Our health is in our hands and we can change our lives if we want to.
It is important to understand the options. It starts when you are able to think about what you want and how you want to live. What is more important? Doing something about it is the next step. As a person and professional, I know what it takes to make a personal, business and family schedule work. As I help businesses with their employee health concerns, I continue to learn more about people and the challenges they go through. We are all dealing with similar issues. We may live in different places with different people around us, but we all have the same amount of time in the day. Last I checked, the day was 24 hours long for everyone.
The biggest barrier is what we already discussed: thinking about it and realizing that they can change the way they do things. Deciding you want to take control of your health is important, but actually taking the steps is what will bring the new results they are looking for. We often get caught up in the thought that we’ve never done it before, it’s been a long time or we don’t know where to start. This can make it seem very difficult, when in fact, once we start the process by taking the first step, other steps reveal themselves and it becomes easier as we go. In other words, the next step is action. Now that you’ve thought about it, it is time to make it happen. It can be done if you are willing to do it.
What does that take? It depends on your goals. If your goal is to be smoke-free, than you need to start with a timeline and look at places you can reduce your smoking. If you are looking to get more active, take a look at what activities you like to do and when you can do them. As long as you act according to your priorities, you will make progress.
Making it happen may seem difficult at first. The beauty of this step is that by thinking about it first, you really set yourself up to be in a better position to act. Basically, making it happen is not as difficult as it seems once you know what you want to do.
Now that you’ve thought about what you want your health to look like and what changes need to be made, you are ready to start putting your plan in motion. Once the plan is in motion, you are already going. The hardest part is getting started, but once you have, all you have to do is continue. Just keep going and you will succeed. Make it happen.
See Feb. entry http://businesshealthstrategy.blogspot.com/2010/02/think-about-it.html for more detail on this and how it also applies to you as an individual.
Thinking about it is very important for businesses and for each of us as individuals. We need to know there is an issue, understand our best option to change the issue. In health and in business, we are missing this step. Believe it or not the next step would be even easier if we just took the time to think about the big picture.
What is the big picture? We discuss it often. It is the fact that as a society, our health is declining and our healthcare system is in trouble. It doesn’t have to be. By thinking about it, the solution is clear and much less difficult than you think it is. Our health is in our hands and we can change our lives if we want to.
It is important to understand the options. It starts when you are able to think about what you want and how you want to live. What is more important? Doing something about it is the next step. As a person and professional, I know what it takes to make a personal, business and family schedule work. As I help businesses with their employee health concerns, I continue to learn more about people and the challenges they go through. We are all dealing with similar issues. We may live in different places with different people around us, but we all have the same amount of time in the day. Last I checked, the day was 24 hours long for everyone.
The biggest barrier is what we already discussed: thinking about it and realizing that they can change the way they do things. Deciding you want to take control of your health is important, but actually taking the steps is what will bring the new results they are looking for. We often get caught up in the thought that we’ve never done it before, it’s been a long time or we don’t know where to start. This can make it seem very difficult, when in fact, once we start the process by taking the first step, other steps reveal themselves and it becomes easier as we go. In other words, the next step is action. Now that you’ve thought about it, it is time to make it happen. It can be done if you are willing to do it.
What does that take? It depends on your goals. If your goal is to be smoke-free, than you need to start with a timeline and look at places you can reduce your smoking. If you are looking to get more active, take a look at what activities you like to do and when you can do them. As long as you act according to your priorities, you will make progress.
Making it happen may seem difficult at first. The beauty of this step is that by thinking about it first, you really set yourself up to be in a better position to act. Basically, making it happen is not as difficult as it seems once you know what you want to do.
Now that you’ve thought about what you want your health to look like and what changes need to be made, you are ready to start putting your plan in motion. Once the plan is in motion, you are already going. The hardest part is getting started, but once you have, all you have to do is continue. Just keep going and you will succeed. Make it happen.
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