Monday Morning Rework
I’m having a strange relationship with my fitness efforts. They’re a bit off base right now, but I think this is okay. I think it relates to my newly minted belief that I must have a more whole-person approach to what I’m doing and trying to accomplish. As always, I’m working on something, and I think it has some merit to spell it out here. This is more “theory related to fitness and life efforts” talk. Skip it if you want to hear about race results or fat free recipes.
Begin With the End in Mind
This should strike everyone as a no-brainer, but if one doesn’t determine what matters most to them, it makes the goals we set for ourselves fairly useless. To that end, I’m rethinking the guiding principles by which I wish to choose my goals. Again, I’m trying to integrate everything into an easy-to-follow view of the world. It helps to focus on what matters most to me.
Personal Health: This includes physical and mental health. I believe one must take care of one’s self FIRST before seeing to the needs of others. Having but one vessel to accomplish things outside of myself — my body — I must maintain a level of health to keep other promises in my life. Here’s where I throw my physical fitness goals, as well as mental and spiritual health goals. For the last one, I’m trying to do my own rendition of meditation. I’ll keep you posted.
Family First: My wife and child (+kid on the way) are my first priority, and then my extended family. It’s important that I always remember to integrate them into as much of my life as possible, while keeping a special space for myself for maintaining my individual identity. I use this principle to remind me that sometimes the here and now isn’t as important as the family-mindset big picture.
Learn/Teach: I believe this is probably my strongest personal vocation, and where the strength of my “voice” centers. To that end, I work towards this daily. I try to experience things, to capture them, to learn them, understand them, and then to model and teach them. Through this, I try to bring understanding to others, because I feel that people like to feel educated about things that matter to their daily existence.
Create: It’s important to create new things, to be excited about projects that use other parts of my brain. I’ve neglected this a lot lately, or rather, I’ve channeled my talents into other avenues. I’m going to rebuild some of this within myself.
Laugh My Ass Off: It’s pretty important to keep humor in my life. I use this principle to include everything about life that’s fun and funny. This matters a lot, too.
Anyhow, I’m still going to write about self improvement and fitness and nutrition and the like. This is just something that’s swirling around me at the same time.
Thoughts?
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Comments
Kid on the way? Did you mention that before? How did I miss that? congrats on that one, Chris!
You know, most people wait until they are in their 50’s to come up with this stuff, and then they wish they had done it when they were young. I think by “finding your way” now, you are so far ahead of the game.
I know someone who has a similar priority list and he uses it to determine alot of what he is doing and working on. If it doesn’t help him make one of his top goals, he doesn’t bother with it. You can’t do everything you want to do in life, and when you spend time on something that doesn’t give you what you want/need, then something else loses out.
Good stuff, Chris. :)
Great priorities! Sometimes it’s tough to make stuff I want to do to fit into a structure like that, but it always pays off when I do.
It’s like one of my favourite Stepen Covey quotes “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
What’s my main thing again?
Kid on the way!!?? That’s awesome! I didn’t realize you were expanding the family headcount!! Congrats. Will have to read backwards to see if I missed it somewhere. Anyhoo, good for you and thanks for the great fitness writing…