This meme reflects my attitude toward the value of time.

Time is the most valuable commodity we have. We each have a limited supply, with some having more than others. How we spend our time is important.

I obsess about the value of my time. I am constantly aware of what I do with it and I make decisions based on this awareness.

It’s one of the main reasons I retired from my job early. The job was rewarding and I enjoyed the people I worked with, but decades were going by and I felt my time would be better spent elsewhere. The question I asked myself was “Did I have something better to do or was this job the best use of my time?”

When I was getting ready to retire, others of retirement age approached me to pick my brain. The two main questions were “Why?” and “What will you do?” For each question, I had a long list of answers, which no one really wanted to hear. So, I pared down my responses to one sentence: I’m leaving because I have better, more important things to do such as run my businesses.

Many people ask such questions to reflect on their own circumstances. I often found the retirement conversation would drift back to their own intentions to retire. My advice to those considering retirement: If you don’t have anything better to do, stay at your job.

You should know that I took a big financial hit to leave my job in my 50’s. Suze Orman would have given me a big thumbs down. But it has never been just about the money. It’s about how I prioritize my time.

And that’s the key for me – to spend my time on those things that have the highest priority.

Author Jen Sincero introduced me to the concept of “Millions of Mirrors”, which is basically a means to better yourself by observing others. Just like others who wanted to learn from my retirement experience, I too want to learn from others. I observe where other people prioritize their time and compare it to how I prioritize the use of my time.

There’s no judgement here. What’s important to others may not be important to me. Still, observing others is a great way to learn.

For instance, there are plenty of people that consider playing 6 hours of video games per day the best use of their limited time on the planet. Cool – go for it. I really enjoyed video games 20 years ago. I stopped playing, because I found it was getting in the way of things that I wanted to accomplish. It was a matter of priorities.

I know people that drive 30 minutes to Planet Fitness so they can pay only $10 per month rather than pay roughly 3X that to workout in our gym. That’s cool too. Maybe they’re getting in some quality thinking time in during the drive. Maybe the amped up atmosphere at PF motivates them. For me, I wasn’t willing to spend 5 hours a week (and $25 in gas) driving back and forth for my workouts. Hence, The Muscle Shack was born.

I know others that spend 5-10 hours a week walking outside or on a treadmill. I totally get it. Walking is wonderful exercise and is very helpful for getting your head screwed on straight. Barb walks often. Me – not so much. 20 minutes of interval cardio gives me a better cardio workout than an hour of walking. Also, doing HIIT allows me to work in my cardio with strength training, thereby reducing my overall exercise time.

So I use other people’s priorities to hone in my own. For me, my health is a very high priority. It is from which all else comes. If I’m not feeling well, everything comes to a halt. That’s why I dedicate 5 hours per week of my precious time to my workouts. It is the least I can do and the most I can afford. I use combination modalities such as HIIT and Yoga to work in strength, cardio, and mobility. To supplement, I have an additional 40 minutes of strictly interval cardio and an hour of targeted strength training.

Because I value time, my exercise program is carefully engineered by experts. My program needs to produce solid results and fix all that ails me. It needs to be enjoyable and it needs to make me feel good. I don’t leave it to chance.

After 33 years in the fitness business, one phrase that I’ve heard over and over is, “I don’t have time to exercise”. As I mentioned, it’s not really about the time – it’s about priorities.

When I had real young kids, I was in the worst shape of my life. Between work and watching kids, it didn’t seem like I had the time to exercise or focus on my diet. I even had a gym literally in my back yard!

I lived on cookies and coffee. I felt like crap.

Turned out that it wasn’t that I didn’t have the time to exercise – it was that I didn’t have the ENERGY. I spent up to 3 hours each evening as a lifeless lump on the couch watching TV. This wasn’t good for my family or my health.

I turned it around and started incorporating exercising with family time. The kids spent a lot of time in the gym growing up. My daughter was basically born with dumbbells in her hands and I trained with my son in Taekwondo for most of his teenage years.

As I felt better, Barb and I took on even more. We dove into community projects along with raising the family, all while keeping our exercise (generally) in place. With exercise and a decent diet, there really wasn’t anything we couldn’t do.

Investing in exercise and a good diet gives you a return of more quality time. It’s true what they say – “Exercise adds years to your life and life to your years.”

I respect everyone’s right to do what they want with their time. Absolutely no judgement. But if you truly want to get into shape and think you just don’t have the time, track where your time is going for a week – from the minute you wake up until you go to bed. There’s a good chance that out of the 112 waking hours per week, you can find 5 that you can invest in some exercise.

Over the years, I’ve seen how many people have creatively worked exercise into their lives.

• Exercising first thing in the morning before you start your day puts it as first priority, I know a mother of 4 with a full-time job that used to come and work out at 5:30 AM before the kids got up.
• Walking or working out during lunch hours is a good way to bring some activity into the day.
• Stopping at the gym on the way home from work works for some. It gets it out of the way before you relax for the evening
• Exercising with family members is a good way to spend quality time while doing something good for your body.
• Weekends are a great opportunity to catch up on exercise. I know one guy that just ran 5 miles every Sunday morning. That was it for the whole week! That really doesn’t hit everything but if that’s all the time he could afford…

If it’s your priority it will get done.

And the return will be enormous.

And if you want an exercise program designed by experts, give us a call.

Ron