Give it Up
by Brian Diaz
The 40 days period leading up to Easter (March 27th) is referred to as Lent. During Lent, many Christians will give up something for the 40 days. Often people will give up sweets, coffee, alcohol, or even Facebook. A few years back, my brother-in-law gave up television…now that is commitment! The idea is to remove something from your life that might be holding you back from being the best person you can be. By eliminating something bad for you (or at least not good for you), you are making room in your life for something more productive.
Let’s look at sweets, coffee, and alcohol. As athletes, we want to be in peak physical performance. As coaches, most of us could use a healthier lifestyle. Now an occasional sweet or cup of coffee or glass of wine is not going to negatively affected our well-being. However, a daily candy bar, or cup of coffee (or soda), or 4-5 beers every Saturday night does have a big negative impact on our overall health. Replacing each of these with healthy substitutes can make a huge difference and leave us feeling healthier and more energized to attack the day. Reaching our optimal energy will allow us to build more momentum and become more productive. (more on this momentum idea to come very soon)
Facebook, in and of itself, is not bad. But when ‘checking’ Facebook kills 30 minutes of your day every time you click on it, then it has become bad. None of us have enough time in the day to accomplish what we need to or what we want to! I have never met a coach or student-athlete who went to bed saying, “I was so productive today that I have nothing to do tomorrow.”
How many of us would like to read more? How many of us would like to have more dinners with our family? How many of us would like to exercise more? We can see how trading in 30 minutes of Facebook, begins to free up 30 minutes for something that might be more productive for us. To be clear, I am not talking about updating your Facebook page for your team’s page, I am talking about the inevitable browsing of Facebook that kills 30 minutes in a flash.
There is an endless list of things or habits we can eliminate from our day in order to become a better version of ourselves. What is it that you need to give up? What habit have you created which is not in your BEST interest? What ‘time bandits’ do you allow to creep into your day taking away from what could really help you grow? Identify them and GIVE IT UP! Invest your time in more productive activities and habits. Invest in yourself!
And now that you have ‘created’ some extra and are focused on being your best, I recommend reading ‘Eat That Frog‘ by Brian Tracy while you are doing your 30 minutes of cardio. This is a great book about taking back control of your time and eliminating time wasting activities.