Dr. Slava Shut

Being fit physically is a manifestation of being fit mentally. Just as it takes money to make money, it takes a certain level of health in order to become healthier. You have to be strong enough to make it around the track first before you can work on improving your time. 

To take it further, you have to crawl before you walk.

Welcome to Topic Tuesday, where we discuss a topic related to business, finance, or life in general. Today, I want to talk about the mindset of turning it all around. It’s never too late to change course and change life for the better.

Back 2 Health Physical Therapy

In my work as a physical therapist, I’m lucky enough to work with people from all walks of life. I often go from helping people recover from routine surgeries to guiding elite athletes through some pretty specialized rehabilitation in a typical week. Whether it’s an executive with a golf injury or an elite Hall Of Fame running back in the NFL like my friend Marshall Faulk, injuries can be very disruptive.

But even when you’re healthy, maintaining the body is another lifelong process. More vigorous exercise is important for improving cardiovascular health. Progressive overload can help strengthen muscles and tendons. 

Here are a the first two ways you can make it easier to exercise:

Make Time For Yourself

If you find that you often are too swamped with everything else going in your life to make it to the gym, it’s time to audit your schedule. Even people that used to be at the gym every day sometimes experience a change in their life that can keep them away for long periods of time. During the pandemic, for instance, most gyms shut down, breaking the routines of many people.

If you have other things in your schedule that take the time you used to spend working out, you’re prioritizing those things over maintaining your physical body. Sometimes, you can get away with doing this temporarily. Life requires a certain amount of flexibility from each of us to accomplish all the things we need to. Switching a morning workout to an evening one to make an important appointment, for instance, is a great way to juggle things.

But if you have to cancel on yourself altogether to meet your obligations elsewhere, just remember: you’re not meeting your obligation to yourself. 

Transform Your Mindset

If you find that you’re choosing to do things in order to avoid your workouts, be honest with yourself. Think about why that is; don’t just chalk it up to you being “lazy,” because that might not be the real reason. The mind is a powerful thing. It can convince us to do things the wrong way, and to expect the right result.

If you can’t bring yourself to get back to the gym, do me this favor: think about your last workout. Was it fun? Refreshing? Did it make you feel good?

Or was it difficult? Gruelling? Painful, even?

If your last workout was unpleasant, that might be having an effect on how you view getting back in the gym as a whole. In my work, I find that some people find cardiovascular focused exercises far too exhausting to repeat on a regular basis. They force themselves into the gym over and over through force of will, and eventually, that will breaks down.

Incentives often are better than threats and punishments. It’s a concept that works for giant corporations, adult relationships, and even pertaining to children. What child would do their chores if all they got in return was grounded? What customer would continue purchasing a product that they’re unhappy with?

If you’re having trouble finding the time to get back in the gym, you might not realize that you’re punishing yourself every time you think about how long you’ve been trying to will yourself back in there.

Instead, you should be rewarding yourself when you do work out. 

Don’t teach yourself to hate working out. Teach yourself to love it!

I’ve dedicated my life to helping people improve their lives in all aspects. I want to help people not just with injuries and rehabilitation with physical therapy, but spiritually, financially, too.

If you’re interested in learning how a transformative mindset can be the first step in a major change in your life, schedule a 1-on-1 consultation with me today!