One Day At A Time
Long-term goals are important to focus on. Sometimes they can be a bit overwhelming or discouraging at times. Focus on small every day victories and repeatable habits that allow you to develop the discipline necessary to achieve the long-term goals. Stay focused on the present and your future will be successful.
Kick Start Your Day
Do you feel exhausted, tired and like you have no time for exercise at the end of the day? Try developing a morning fitness routine when you first wake. By exercising at the crack of dawn you increase metabolism, avoid unwanted distractions, promote endorphines in the brain to enhance your mood, increase mental capacity, improve blood flow, support productivity and have a sense of accomplishment.
Be The One
Be the one! Developing a positive frame of mind about your exercise, is important. Align your exercise efforts with things that are both positive and reassuring. Exercise in a fun & enjoyable environment. Objectively measure results. Do things that you enjoy. Exercise with a group of positive people.
Priority Meeting
A workout is just as much of an investment in your career as it is an investment in your physical and mental well-being. Exercise is even more effective than anti-depressants and ADHD medication for enhancing your mood and mental focus. Therefore you have no reason not to make exercise your number one priority meeting of the day.
3 C’s to Success
At least once in a CEO’s career they will have a goal to lose weight. It can be a real challenge to maintain a healthy weight if you are constantly travelling, having dinner meetings, socialising with your clients, working long hours, sitting at a desk and under high levels of stress. To break the model you need COMMITMENT, CONSISTENCY and CONTROL. Commitment to healthy lifestyle is about 80% mental and without mental strength and commitment your life change is unlikely to last. Any type of success requires consistency over a long period of time, even when you feel tired, frustrated and cranky. You need the self-control to say no to a beer, calorie-filled deserts, a second take at the buffet and the burger bar. control the forces in your life to ensure you have time to sleep, rest, exercise and enjoy the basic human rights of eating, resting and exercising.
Plan of Attack
What is your plan of attack to ensure that you get some exercise in every single day? Remember ‘failure to plan is planning to fail’. CEO’s and leaders often keep track of their important dates, meetings and deadlines in an online schedule or physical diary. Some may even use a PA that keeps them on time, for them. Your exercise and fitness should be no different. Exercise is a fundamental building block to achieving peak performance as a CEO or Leader, therefore it is important to take the time, sit down and assess each week, month or year and seeing opportunities to block out regular timeslots for exercise. You should treat these time-blocks the same way you would any other meeting.
Quick Fix
How much time are you prepared to allocate and schedule each day of the week to ensure your mind and body are ready to deliver peak performance in the workplace? If you have a tight schedule, family commitments and travel often, it cannot be underestimated how beneficial doing short, intense sessions can be. If you are struggling to regularly keep fit, high-intensity exercise done in as little as 15-30min, 2 or 3 times a week, can still be incredibly beneficial for your health and fitness. No one can tell me that they can’t find 15-30min in their day, to take care of themselves!
Fitness Friend
Do you find it a challenge to stay motivated and consistent with your workouts when you train by yourself? Finding a workout friend is hugely helpful for keeping motivated, ensuring you turn up each day and making it fun. It is important to find someone who is positive and will inspire, rather than discourage you. Write down a list of your friends who love to exercise and then mark down whether they are available to meet on a regular basis, are they supportive of your goals, and can they keep up with you or even push your limits in key workouts? Once you have identified someone or a group of people, then now is a great time to give them a call and get started.
Every Day is a New Day
We need to continually fuel our mind and body. Routines can become very boring and unhealthy if we continue to do the same thing day after day. We need try something new every day to make life more exciting. Start small like taking a different route to work, starting the day with a drink of water, taking staff out for a walking meeting, more vegetables over the food we eat or set a new goal like climbing a mountain. The benefits of attempting new things and really valuable and make life more exciting. It brings you out of your comfort zone, it’s great for our brain and mental strength, it event makes you more confident and courageous, and it provide a sense of accomplishment.
Small Incremental Efforts
To be successful you need to make small and consistent incremental efforts each day. Something as simple as 5min walk today and 6min tomorrow, or halving the amount of butter on your toast.
Workplace Motivation
You can’t build a company culture on free snacks in the boardroom or a foosball table in the office. Company culture is built on talking with your team and understanding what motivates each person. What makes them tick, why are they there and what do they want in the future. You also need to remove the negative influencers in a team before they effect the behaviour of other employees. Because this is important for not only for your welfare as a leader, but also to ensure you keep the team, long-term.
Habit Reflection
As CEO’s we need to be aware of our Habits and know that the best Habit is to reflect on your habits. Allocate some time 2-4x per year where you find the space to reflect on your habits and determine what habits you could tweak slightly, commit to stop doing, rethink, start doing more of.
Focus in the Moment
What we can control is right now! We can’t change history, however we can take what we have learnt; good or bad, right or wrong; and harness the opportunities to do something better or leapfrog off what we was successful. Use your strengths to be better now, improve the way you live and make the world a better place. It starts with making a choice, a decision that only you can own in the moment, right now.
Fear Less
80% of what we worry about never comes true. The negative stories and ideas that ruminate in our heads are usually not based on fact, but fiction. If you have a concern, front up and ask a question to the person or people involved, or do you research to find evidence which proves it is easier right or wrong or both. You have a choice to focus on what will become true, not what negatives could become true.
Better Place
Our role as a leader is to leave what we are looking for in a better place. Stewardship, how we add to the legacy of what has been built before us and what we give to allow it to continue blossoming in the future. We are here to serve and ensure everyone is brought along in the journey and their internal motivations are utilized to galvanize the legacy.
Leaders are Teachers
be a student of the game you are playing in. Practice more and Always Strive to be the best you can be. focus on teaching those around you as that is where your learning goes to another level. Never let the music die inside you.
Be The One
Be the one! Developing a positive frame of mind about your exercise, is important. Align your exercise efforts with things that are both positive and reassuring. Exercise in a fun & enjoyable environment. Objectively measure results. Do things that you enjoy. Exercise with a group of positive people.
Priority Meeting
A workout is just as much of an investment in your career as it is an investment in your physical and mental well-being. Exercise is even more effective than anti-depressants and ADHD medication for enhancing your mood and mental focus. Therefore you have no reason not to make exercise your number one priority meeting of the day.
Quick Fix
How much time are you prepared to allocate and schedule each day of the week to ensure your mind and body are ready to deliver peak performance in the workplace? If you have a tight schedule, family commitments and travel often, it cannot be underestimated how beneficial doing short, intense sessions can be. If you are struggling to regularly keep fit, high-intensity exercise done in as little as 15-30min, 2 or 3 times a week, can still be incredibly beneficial for your health and fitness. No one can tell me that they can’t find 15-30min in their day, to take care of themselves!
The Daily Unwind
Before you go to sleep it is important to have a period of quietness or relaxation that allows your body and mind to slow down. Taking a 30 minute walk, maybe with your partner or dog; meditating or stretching; listening to music; or reading a non-work related book, will allow you to clear your head and calm you down from the daily stresses of work and life. It is also important to find the time to get proper perspective and clarity about your priorities. Writing a daily journal, diary or notes takes the chaotic noise of messages in your head and compartmentalises them at the end of each day. Find something that works for you so you get a full and uninterupted sleep each night.
Take a 1 in 60 Break
Take a mental break is important for you to deliver high quality work. Try taking a 1 minute break every hour to stand up, stretch a little, go for a walk or do some other form of exercise. The break allows your mind to consolidate the information you have been processing. It also lets the mind recover and prepare to work at its optimum for a longer period of time.
Self Regulation
Self-regulation has been identified as a vital element of emotional intelligence. Having good self-regulation allows you to adapt effectively to changing situations. First you need to be aware of your emotions, then your ability to manage what you are feeling. Self-regulation is about dealing with and expressing your emotions in appropriate ways at the right time. Reacting impulsively to emotions and feelings that you have ‘bottled up’, can lead to negative consequences. In the workplace you need to have the ability to think how your emotional expressions will impact others. You can improve your workplace self-regulation by finding hobbies or physical exercise outside of work that help you to release stress. Understand that you cannot control everything and therefore you need to develop habits that ensure you keep your cool when things get stressful. Remember, to take time to think about how you will act before making decisions. Being able to remain calm, consider all of the possibilities and have a clear head to make rational choices will serve you well and ensure relationships aren’t strained.
Walking Meetings
Walking meetings have a number of benefits to both your personal and work performance. New ideas and solutions to problems are common due to the exposure to nature and changes of scenery triggering new neuro-pathways in our brains. Walking meetings allow you to integrate physical activity while discussing valuable work with your employees or customers. Movement improves blood circulation, which leads to increased energy. When executives and employees walk together, hierarchal boundaries are broken down. Personal connections can be strengthened as it is easier to relate at a more personal level when moving rather than sitting.
Stretch it Out!
Woke up this morning feeling stiff and found it a struggle to get the body moving! Daily stretching releases muscle tension, prevents muscle cramps, improves lymphatic flow and blood flow, increases range of motion and can help you improve your performance in physical activities. These benefits can also lead to improving your posture, prevent back pain, release stress, calm your mind, decrease tension headaches, make you happier and control your breathing. With all the sitting at a computer, driving or watching TV, our hip, back, shoulder, neck and leg muscles tend to tighten up, which reduces blood flow and potentially your neural performance. You only need a couple of minutes of stretching or yoga per day, to make you feel better. Try stretching in the morning a little and a little more at night before bed.
Apologise to Me!
How comfortable are you in saying sorry? We naturally value our ego more than our relationships and therefore it takes strength and courage to be able to say ‘I’m sorry’. Emotional intelligence helps you to comprehend that by saying sorry you demonstrate humility and by apologising it doesn’t always mean that you are wrong. Humility is an important quality that improves relationships and naturally draws others to you.
How Are You Behaving?
Are you emotionally aware of your actions and behaviours? Try observing your behaviours when you are experiencing different emotions. How do those behaviours effect the way you live your life and how you interact with others? If you are conscious of how you react to your emotions, you then have the ability to control and manage them.
Say Hello to H2O
Playing a game of tennis, taking a spin class, pounding the pavement, hitting the hills, shooting some hoops or doing a yoga session? Then grab a bottle and fill it with H2O. Water is crucial to optimal performance in the workplace and while out exercising for up to 60-90 minutes. It’s always important to hydrate so you can stay energized and enjoy a great workout. Water is vital to regulate body temperature, maintain blood volume and allow muscles to contract effectively. It is important to drink water often as it i
Weigh to Go
Do you want to lose or maintain weight? Then you will want to accurately monitor your weight regularly with a consistent measure. Your weight can fluctuate quite a bit throughout the day, depending on what you eat, how much fluids you consume and also other factors such as stress levels. To effectively track your progress, the best time is to weigh yourself in the morning, as soon as you wake up, after going to the bathroom first. You don’t want to become a slave to the numbers, so it can be beneficial to only check your weight 1-2x per week.
Stitched Up
There is nothing worse then enjoying a great workout when that sharp pain hits you in the side, just below the ribcage. Yes the dreaded stitch! It usually tends to hit when you are working at high intensity and when you least expect it. It’s known as a side stitch, and it can be a major nuisance. So how do you get rid of it? You can press on the pain point and take continuous long deep breaths, while continuing to walk. Sometimes it helps to drink some water or do a side stretch, where you raise the arm on the same side above your head and lean to the opposite side. Usually you can get back to exercise within 30-60 seconds.
Police Your Portions
The size of meal portions at many restaurants, cafes and fast food joints seem to be forever increasing. What is fascinating is that it is quite common that the less you pay the more you get on your plate. Go figure! You have to police your portion and sometimes, leave some on the plate. Gone are the days where you have to finish every piece of food on your plate, to be polite. If you feel full after eating the meal, then you have most likely eaten too much and you risk your body processing the excess and turning it into unwated fat stock piles in your body. Be aware of how much you are about to consume.
Blueberries Your Superfood
Blueberries are not only delicious, but they have lots on nutritional value. They are packed with antioxidants and phytoflavinoids, these berries are also high in potassium and vitamin C, making them the top choice of doctors and nutritionists. Blueberries can also lower your risk of heart disease and cancer and they are anti-inflammatory. The darker the colour the more antioxidants they have. Make sure the next time you are at the grocery store you grab blueberries and incorporate this superfood into your diet.
Apple a Day
Eating fruit provides many physiological, physical and psychological benefits, every single day. They are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, potassium and fibre, which help us stay healthy and even reduce the risk of disease. Fruit often contains phytochemicals that have antioxidant properties, which help to remove free radicals from our body, may help in slowing aging, and preventing diseases like cancer and cardiovascular conditions. Potassium and magnesium found in fruit are linked to lower blood pressure. Colourful fruits, especially orange, red and yellow, contain carotenes, which are thought to assist in immune function. Water is abundant in fruit and helps to prevent dehydration throughout the day. Buy fruit for snacks.
Disconnect
It wasn’t that long ago where we survived perfectly fine without mobile phones. So why are they now attached to us like a 3rd arm? It is important that we allow time for our mind to relax, away from distractions such as mobile phones and the numerous apps we get lured in to check every 5 minutes. Try taking a break from the mobile phone when you are exercising, having meals, in a meeting and most importantly when you enter the bedroom. If you know the phone is with you, there is still part of the brain waiting for a ring, an alert and a vibrate or light flash can disrupt your all important sleep. Free the mind!
Give it a Rest
It is amazing how many people disregard the most important technique for stress management, productivity, mental health, physical health and performance, GET A GOODS NIGHT SLEEP! People who get less than 6hrs sleep double the likelihood of weight gain and diabetes because of raised cortisol levels and the affects it has on insulin metabolism and blood-sugar control. Getting 8 or more hours sleep a night has a positive affect on your biochemical balance, predisposition to chronic diseases, performance, mood, energy levels, helping you to lose weight, controlling your stress response and vigor. Prioitise the time you go to bed.
Fast Response
It is so easy to get bogged down writing a long email, considering the way you have written it and whether it is appropriate or not. If an email is longer than 2 paragraphs consider walking to their desk or office and have a chat instead. You will speed up the response time and you get the added value of some exercise as well.
Play with Puzzles
Stimulate your creativity, intellect and memory through playing puzzles on a regular basis. Creativity and intellect are two things that, unfortunately, don’t get used enough during our jobs. Whether it be the Rubix cube, Sudoku, jigsaw puzzles, chess or more advanced puzzles like Zahnradlabyrinth double gear maze and Calcudoku, you need to continue to challenge your take your brain to the next level of thinking.
Stairway to Heaven
How often do we take the easy way out? Instead of using the lift, take the stairs. Instead of using your allocated carpark by the door, park on the opposite side of the carpark and walk over. Get off the train or bus, one stop early and walk the rest of the way. Walk instead of using the travelator when transiting in airports. Not only do you get some extra exercise, it also gives you a chance to free your mind.
Get Active in the Workplace
Extended periods of time spent sitting can result in chronic back pain, cardiovascular disease, muscle deterioration, decreased productivity and even poor mental health. It supports a sedentary lifestyle that could also lead to weight gain, poor cardiovascular health, weakened muscles, stiff joints, and even diabetes.
Go Unplugged!
Having trouble sleeping? Try switching off your digital devices 60-90minutes before going to bed. The blue wavelength light from LED-based devices (phones, tablets, computers) increases the release of cortisol in the brain, which makes us more alert, and inhibits the production of melatonin, which is needed to fall asleep. Read more…
Feedback Mechanism
To meet your exercise goals, tell the people around you. Making friends and colleagues aware of your aims, provides you a second conscience. You will be less likely to cancel a workout if you know that a colleague may ask if you did your workout this morning.
Fitness Priority
If you want to make a positive change in your health and wellness, then make fitness a priority. Move your health goals to the top of your priority list. Many people spend their time constantly taking care of everyone else, which results in having no time to take care of yourself. Make it a priority!
Dive Back In
It may have been a while since you have turned the arms over and kicked your way down a swimming pool. 1. Grab some friends or join a swim group or squad. This will help with motivation, enjoyment and adherence. 2. Remember to breath. With so many factors to focus on, people often forget to breathe out while their face is in the water, which then effects your ability to swim for a period of time. 3. break the stroke down and focus on different aspects of your swim stroke, so you can develop an efficient technique quickly. This will help you prevent poor habits, reduce the risk of injury, improve efficiency and feel more comfortable in the water. 4. Start easy and build up gradually.
Stretch It Out
Your joints need to be able to move freely through a good range of motion. Our lifestyles and habits tend to result in muscle tension and joint stiffness if they aren’t looked after. Activities such as Yoga and stretching are perfect for relieving the tension and stiffness. Stretching, if done correctly, stretching helps improve flexibility and allows muscles to work efficiently and effectively. It is not recommended to hold a stretch too long, stretch vigorously or stretch until it hurts. If static stretching, you should hold gentle stretches at full range of movement until you feel resistance, not pain. Start with 10 second stretches and build up to 30-40 seconds. You will notice after about 20-25 seconds you will feel the muscle fibres release and you will be able to stretch a bit further.
Tennis with a Heart Beat
You love swinging a tennis racket, keeping fit, listening to music and have been trying to get your 10,000 steps in each day. Then give Fitbit Cardio Tennis a go. This fun, healthy and energetic session is a tennis workout program catering to all fitness levels. Fitbit Cardio Tennis brings together a variety of cardio workouts, a range of fun tennis drills, all to a high-energy soundtrack. Enjoy an active and healthy lifestyle with a difference.
Swing it!
As you start to fatigue, during a run, you will notice your stride rate slowing. As a result your foot will spend more time on the ground working more as a breaking force rather than a propelling force, and you may even lengthen your stride. Instead of focusing on your run stride rate, focus on your arm swing rate to increase or maintain your speed. Your arm swing is connected to your stride rate, and as you increase the speed of your arms, the faster your legs will turn over and therefore you will run more efficiently.
In the Groove
Has your life got rhythm? Try working out with music so you can get in the groove. On a recovery type session, you may consider ‘relaxing’ music. Whereas a hard interval type session try an ‘upbeat tune’ that gets you pumped up. If you are really clever you can match the music beat to the rhythm you want to do your workout at. Depending on your mood you can choose music that will either pick you up and relax you if you are too amped up. Just remember to keep the sound level at a point where you can still here whats happening in your surroundings, especially when running or riding on or across a road.
Up Your Exercise
You want to increase your workout length, intensity or volume. How do you know how much to increase it? The general rule of thumb is to increase by no more than 5-10% each week. This is a safe approach to ensure that you don’t place excess loads on your muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones and major organ’s. A gradual increase in intensity, duration and/or volume is important for long-term performance gains. Remember that after 3-4 weeks of gradual increases you should have a de-loading week where you reduce the intensity, duration, and/or volume by 25-50% to allow your body to recover, adapt and become stronger.
Breaking the Ice
Notice how your muscles tighten up after a challenging workout. Sore thighs, tight calves or maybe heavy arms. By submerging your body into a cold ice bath (10 to 15 degrees Celcius) for 10 to 15 minutes, you can speed up the recovery time. When you first try this valuable recovery technique you may want to alternate 2 minutes and 1 minute out, until you adjust to the ‘shock sensation’ you feel. An ice bath reduces swelling, flushes lactic acid out of your body, and prevents tissue breakdown. The cold causes the blood vessels to tighten which helps flush out lactic acid. When you get out of the bath, the muscles warm up and blood vessels open, which causes oxygenated blood to return, helping the muscles recover. The ice bath may also enhance your emotional resilience and decrease stress.
Friend Fitness
Do you find it a challenge to stay motivated and consistent with your workouts when you train by yourself? Finding a workout friend is hugely helpful for keeping motivated, ensuring you turn up each day and making it fun. It is important to find someone who is positive and will inspire, rather than discourage you. Write down a list of your friends who love to exercise and then mark down whether they are available to meet on a regular basis, are they supportive of your goals, and can they keep up with you or even push your limits in key workouts? Once you have identified someone or a group of people, then now is a great time to give them a call and get started.
Active Recovery
As a busy CEO, leader or business owner you need to take one to two days a week for active recovery. Not just to recover from yoru fitness routine, but to allow your body to recharge from the combined stresses of work, social, family and exercise you accumulate. Take a walk or a surf. Do a gentle yoga class or meditation session. Just do something that’s less intense than what you do for exercise the other days of the week.
Quick Fix
How much time are you prepared to allocate and schedule each day of the week to ensure your mind and body are ready to deliver peak performance in the workplace? If you have a tight schedule, family commitments and travel often, it cannot be underestimated how beneficial doing short, intense sessions can be. If you are struggling to regularly keep fit, high-intensity exercise done in as little as 15-30min, 2 or 3 times a week, can still be incredibly beneficial for your health and fitness. No one can tell me that they can’t find 15-30min in their day, to take care of themselves!
Plan of Attack
What is your plan of attack to ensure that you get some exercise in every single day? Remember ‘failure to plan is planning to fail’. CEO’s and leaders often keep track of their important dates, meetings and deadlines in an online schedule or physical diary. Some may even use a PA that keeps them on time, for them. Your exercise and fitness should be no different. Exercise is a fundamental building block to achieving peak performance as a CEO or Leader, therefore it is important to take the time, sit down and assess each week, month or year and seeing opportunities to block out regular time slots for exercise. You should treat these time-blocks the same way you would any other meeting.
3C’s to Success
At least once in a CEO’s career they will have a goal to lose weight. It can be a real challenge to maintain a healthy weight if you are constantly travelling, having dinner meetings, socialising with your clients, working long hours, sitting at a desk and under high levels of stress. To break the model you need COMMITMENT, CONSISTENCY and CONTROL. Commitment to healthy lifestyle is about 80% mental and without mental strength and commitment your life change is unlikely to last. Any type of success requires consistency over a long period of time, even when you feel tired, frustrated and cranky. You need the self-control to say no to a beer, calorie-filled deserts, a second take at the buffet and the burger bar. control the forces in your life to ensure you have time to sleep, rest, exercise and enjoy the basic human rights of eating, resting and exercising.
Workout With a Purpose
Would you approve a project without a purpose? So why would you exercise without purpose? It is important to set yourself a goal for each session and know why you are doing it. Going through the motions is just about as useful as sitting on the couch with a beer and a bag of chips. Will your next workout build speed (high-intensity intervals), endurance (long slow distance), strength (weights, cross-fit), power (plyometrics), balance (Yoga, pilates) or flexibility (dynamic stretching)?
HIIT Training 40/20 Rule.
Are you wanting to perform at a higher level for a longer period? If yes, then you need to improve your bodies ability to manage lactate. Excess lactate reduces your muscles ability to contract, which will resulting in your body slowng down and producing less force. To improve your bodies ability to clear lactate you can improve your lactate threshold through intervals of 40seconds effort at close to or on your lactate threshold and 20 seconds of recovery exercise. Start with 2-4 intervals and then gradually build up as your body begins to adapt. One session every seven days is appropriate
Be the One!
Developing a positive frame of mind about your exercise, is important. Align your exercise efforts with things that are both positive and reassuring. Exercise in a fun & enjoyable environment. Objectively measure results. Do things that you enjoy. Exercise with a group of positive people.
Kick Start Your Day!
Do you feel exhausted, tired and like you have no time for exercise at the end of the day? Try developing a morning fitness routine when you first wake. By exercising at the crack of dawn you increase metabolism, avoid unwanted distractions, promote endorphines in the brain to enhance your mood, increase mental capacity, improve blood flow, support productivity and have a sense of accomplishment.
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