Don't be a foot dragger

"An hour of hard practice is worth five hours of foot dragging"
Pancho Seguro

Of course this doesn't just apply to exercise, but to every aspect of our lives.

When we are determined to get something completed because we have a can't get out of deadline - we do whatever we need to do to get the job done. No deadline, we can take as long as we like - and we usually do.

Now I know that it takes discipline to work at your full capacity every minute of the day but you can do it and I will tell you how in just a moment.

But first let's go back to the sports analogy - when you exercise do you get to the end of your workout and not feel like you've achieved very much? I've done many exercise classes where I know my effort has not been 100% - and it does make me wonder why I bothered when I knew my mind wasn't involved in the process. I've not worked the right muscles because my posture wasn't correct and I just wasn't thinking about what I was supposed to be doing, I was just going through the motions.

They sound like a bunch of cliches don't they - but they're not. If you are mindful of the exercise that you do, you can make a conscious decision to fire and release each muscle group. Deliberate exercise is important if you want to get results. Believe it or not though you don't have to go the gym to try this, because you don't need weights to work your muscles. Which is something I want you to try right now.

If I said to you extend your right arm out (as if you are indicating to turn right) keep your palm upwards and then bend the arm at the elbow, I can almost guarantee you will barely feel the muscles moving. Now do that again, but this time clench your fist and tense your forearm, lock the elbow into the side of the body and bend the arm. Because you are now thinking about it, you are deliberately making the muscles work - especially the biceps. If you are still not getting the effect - try imagining you are holding a 2 kilo weight or get a tin of baked beans and hold that. Keep the elbow locked into the side of your body and you can get an amazing workout of the biceps - without using weights at all. And the reason is because you are engaging your mind as well as your body. The result is a much better workout, in a much shorter space of time.

Now going back to my previous comment about working at your full capacity for every working minute - how do you do it?

Well think about it in this way

If you had to charge your time based on how much work you do each minute, how much would you have earned today? No, I don't want to know your official hourly rate divided by 60, but an honest appraisal of the work you did during those 60 minutes.

$60 an hour = yes $1 a minute
If you want to double or triple your hourly rate then make sure you are working at the right rate per minute to earn that money.

You may argue that you are salaried and it doesn't matter really how much you earn a minute - well humour me for a moment and pretend you are self-employed and those same dollars also have to pay your overheads (tax, super, electricity, phone calls etc etc) it does tend to give you a much better perspective on your work ethic when you have to account for your time to a client - because they will be paying your bill - will they be happy with the work you have done and the money you are charging them?

As always something to think about as we head into the weekend.

The more you want to earn, the more productive those minutes have to be.