Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.


Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

~ Wu-men ~


Sunday, July 28, 2013

Morning Is King!

For years I had stuggled with finding the time to work out and practice regularly. After work, after I chased the kids around, after I had done the little jobs waiting for me at home, I hoped to have the will power and the energy to stay up and practice.

Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. I found the irregularity to be frustrating.

Then a year ago today, after talking about working out with a friend of mine, I decided that as much as I hated getting up any earlier than I really had to, I liked working out more. I began getting up 90 minutes earlier (5 AM) than I actually needed to to get ready for work.

Every morning during the week I get up, have my coffee, catch up on the news and email; then head downstairs to practice.

I leave myself 90 minutes. Sometimes I use all of it and sometimes not. By leaving that much time I don't feel like I have a deadline weighing over me. I can practice without the anxiety of having to rush.

It's not a LOT of time, but instead of improving through the brute force of repetitions, my plan is to advance by virtue of consistency.

I normally don't "practice" on the weekends, as my weekend projects give me enough of a work out, but I have found that I have been in the habit of always doing standing practice on the weekends, so it turns out that i work out every day.

In fact, before the last Advent Challenge, I began tracking some of my activities at lift.do and according to my records, today marks 243 days of working out in a row.

For anyone struggling with getting in their training, give the mornings a shot.

Morning is King!

2 comments:

Compass Strategist said...

I glad you finally took my suggestion. :)

Rick Matz said...

Actually it was a local friend of mine who had previously never worked out but started and lost 40 lbs.He was the last guy I thought would ever have the discipline to get up and work out everyday.

If he could do it,I could too.