“Right now, someone just as busy as you is making the time to train.” This quote from T-Nation popped up online this morning and its ironic because me and one of my coaches were talking about this exact topic the other day. After working and meeting with hundreds of people over the course of my career, there are many that have had TONS of success and then there are always those few stragglers who just don't quite get the results that they should. Its not just my clients, it can also be people whom I meet and talk with out in random settings.
One common, AND FRUSTRATING, fact that I come across with those that aren't successful are their invalid excuses for missing workouts and training. “Oh I was real busy and didn't have time to make it in.” “I just have so much going on, its hard to fit a workout in.” Bla bla bla fricking bla. Guess what? We are all busy. We all have things going on. But guess what else. Those of us who CARE about REACHING our goals MAKE the time to train. Why? Because it is a top priority and we know that we need to train, because if we don't we will never get to the goals that we want to and need to get to.
These same people also seem to have plenty of time to watch brain draining television shows every night and play around on their smart phones off and on all day. You have 2 to 3 hours to sit on your ass and watch TV but can't find an hour, or heck even 20 minutes, to get a workout in?!!! I'm not buying it. I am as busy as anybody and I still train 4 to 5 days a week. I know know, but “I work in a gym so its easy for me.” Well, I worked 60-70 hour jobs in the past before I was in a gym all day and guess what? I still trained 4 to 5 days a week. And contratry to popular belief, just because you work in a gym does not make it any easier to find training time; in fact, it can be harder. Anybody who owns or works a lot in a gym can attest to this. I haven't missed training time in over 14 years. If I had to get up early to train before work, I would. If I had to train at night after work, I did. Right now, I specifically block time off in my schedule each week to train. I've had loads of clients, colleagues and lifting partners who have made it through and over the same obstacles.
It all comes down to priorities. You either want to improve and reach your goal or you don't. If you want it bad enough, you will train on multiple days consistently week in and week out. If you do have a LEGIT reason for missing a workout some day, you will make it up as soon as you possibly can. Showing up once or twice every other week WILL NOT get you anywhere, plain and simple. Whether thats losing body fat, adding 20 pounds to your deadlift or getting rid of nagging back pain, YOU have to have the discipline and the dedication to get the job done. Its on you to put the time and the effort in to show up and then to perform. And its on you to keep doing this time and time again. Putting some effort in for one month, or even one year, and then quitting is not acceptable either. It takes time and dedication to accomplish big goals. It takes stickability. Nobody can do it for you. If you want to be successful, MAKE IT HAPPEN! And if you don't, then accept the responsibility for your own lack of action instead of walking around complaining.
This spills over into all aspects of life. Want to do something different with your job or career? Then quit sitting around making excuses and being miserable and get up and DO IT! Yes, it might require some work and effort on your part. No, it probably will not happen overnight. But guess what? If its important enough to you and you want it bad enough, you have absolutely no reason not to put the time and the effort in to make it happen. Want to grow and get better as a professional? Turn the tv off, get off of facebook and open up a book. Want to have more money saved up? Then quit wasting it on booze, cigarettes and 24 packs of diet mountain dew, saddle up, have some discipline and put some away each month. And if that is what you spend your money on, then don't walk around complaining about feeling like crap all of the time because its your own fault.
If any of this strikes a nerve with you, then instead of getting angry how about you use it as motivation, get up and go and do something to improve yourself today! To those of you who feel what I am saying, then keep on fighting to get better and keep on achieving more and more goals that all of the naysayers said would never happen; because in the end, you can smile knowing that you gave it your all to be the best you could be.
Nobody has time for training. They make time. If you are not doing so, the only question is why not?
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