Gym and Real Life...

It suddenly dawned on me today it's been a while since I blogged. It's just because life got in the way. So it got me thinking...

#1

What do we prioritise in life? For me the top thing is obvious - my son. For those who don't know, he lives in North Wales with his mum - about a 3.5hour drive each way. I know he's my top priority - I left a well paid job in the pub sector for a variety of reasons but I'd be lying if right at the top was I wanted time with James. I didn't want to miss the Christmas period with him because of work. I didn't want to be a week away from a bank holiday and getting down because it meant 4 or 5 days or working twice as hard for remarkably ungrateful people who seem to think that because they are in a pub they don't need to watch over their children *end rant*. I wanted to be a week before a bank holiday and thing 'great, I'm taking my son camping for the first time ever!'

I've now got myself a job that allows me to be flexible - for a start I'm self employed and when chatting to my clients about why I've changed career direction they've been fully understanding and supportive, which is nice.

I think the next three things are all on a par - gym, friends and work. Obviously work is important - it pays the bills (sadly all to high, seemingly the more we try to save energy by going 'green' the more the energy companies jump their prices up). Friends are vital to me - I've put work before them in the past and I do regret it. It's something I won't do again, but good friends understand that there are times when work has to come first.

And Gym. It's a weird one this. Is it more important than friends or work to look after you're body? I'd say no, but it's certainly not less important. As I found out this week. I needed to get the hours done for work ahead of a meeting tomorrow, I also needed to get to North Wales in time for a Parent-Teacher meeting at 4pm. I also wanted to hit the gym - I was over half way (now 75% !!!) and didn't want to miss a day.

The solution was so simple to me - bed at 8pm the night before, up at 6am, get 2 hours of work done over breakfast, hit the gym for the session, another hour at work, drive up to James, P/T meeting, play with son, put him to bed, another hour at work. Bed.

About a year ago I started a course run by Cat at the gym, which included writing down and thinking about what was truly important to us. I did a variation on this about 3 months ago, where you set yourself up with a pad of paper and 20 minutes on a timer. Write down 100 things you would love to do before the timer runs out.

Important to me? Being happy. Simple

At first this is an easy exercise, and things like 'be a millionaire' and 'own a brand new car' were in the first 30-odd items. But after about 15 minutes and 60-70 things (for me anyway) something strange happens. Your concious can't keep up and your subconscious kicks in - you realise you've got 5 minutes left and just jot down whatever pops into your head. Leave the paper alone, upside down when the timer goes off, and forget about it for a day. Then have a look. Give it a go - I'd love to hear how this worked for you (and even if you think it's a waste of time, it's only 20 minutes).

But by writing things down you get a lot more out of it - a word can't be distracted by a phone going off or the smell of coffee herbal tea drifting out of the kitchen. It sinks in more, more readily accessed. You've thought it, written it, seen it, read it, understood it. Compared to just thinking it.

I genuinely don't watch T.V. I've just got the box set of this - 10 years late!

So what do you prioritise in life? Is it as simple as 1, 2, 3. I certainly don't think so. But I know I'm more than happy to give up watching TV in order to get an early night so I can hit the gym before work. I'll not blog for a few days because it's less important. I think getting the top priorities clearly understood is the key. Everything else can be sacrificed for those top 4/5 things then. So the next time you're chatting to a friend about going to the gym, or the exercise you've just done, and you hear those immortal words muttered by them, you can smile and ask why?

'I don't have time to go to the gym'