Fitness – Page 37 – Disney Employee Engagement Speaker

Did You Exercise Yesterday?

Did you? Great if you did. If you had a planned rest day, also great.

But if you didn’t do either in a purposeful way, you get another chance today.

Here are a couple tips, the most critical things, I’ve found to keep a positive momentum:

Have a goal, or purpose, bigger than yourself
Find the time of day that works best
Add it to your calendar (no afterthoughts)
Find an easy way to keep track of your progress
Forgive yourself if you miss a day, but don’t make it a habit
Have fun, stay healthy (injuries demotivate)
Carpe diem

2009 World Championships

Lane 8 at 2009 World Championships in Lahti, Finland.

That’s “Jack”, my son’s Teddy Bear. He has three exactly alike. He got them as gifts years ago. The collar is actually inscribed “Jack”.

Our son was born in August 2000. My Dad, Jack Noel, passed on, April 2001.

My Father, and our son, never met. We were two months away from our trip to Pennsylvania when the phone call came, “They’re giving your dad three days”.

So, “Jack” the bear, has traveled extensively. He’s the one with two torn ears. The other “Jacks” are in near perfect condition. Our son was gracious enough to let the “tug-o-war with our yellow Lab” Jack travel.

Find a million ways, gimmicks, tricks – whatever it takes – to stay motivated. Jack is simply one of them.

Nine Questions

Did you go for a walk (or exercise) yesterday?

Did you eat sensibly?

Did you read anything that inspired or motivated you?

Did you think about anything that inspired or motivated you?

Did you take some sort of action, different from your usual?

Did you get adequate rest (way under-rated) yesterday?

Did you consider how you’ll stay committed until you die?

Did you have fun yesterday?

Did you do at least one thing that scared you?

Nine yes answers means you lived in the moment. Less than that is, well, less than that.

I only got eight. Adequate rest has been elusive. Which reminds me, nap time.

Small Deeds

“Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned”. — Peter Marshall

Whatever your health goals are, nothing really matters except that you get started and never quit.

Sow your health seeds. Nourish them. Water them. Watch them grow.

If all you do is walk away from your residence for three minutes and then return, you’ve walked six minutes. That six minutes, by itself, is nothing really.

But what if you did it four or five days in one week? What if each week, you added 30 seconds each way – or one minute roundtrip? In four short weeks, you’d be walking ten minutes per day.

What if you built on this success, slowly, and continued this habit for ten more weeks (now three months total)? You’d be walking 20 minutes per day, four or five days per week.

What if you walked 20 minutes, 4-5 days per week, for a year?

What if? What if doesn’t matter if you don’t get started. “Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned”.

Age and Quitting Do This to You

“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul”. — Douglas MacArthur

It’s very difficult, some would even say impossible, to be fit and vibrantly healthy after the days of our youth.

So the big question everyone must ask themselves, “Do I think it’s impossible”?

Got bad news for everyone. Every day we don’t ask, answer and act, is another day that younger folks are looking at us and saying one of two things:

“What a great example”.
“I hope I don’t turn out like so-and-so”.