Life has many components—the main ones being family, friends, health, career, God, and your passions. To me, the goal of life to be actively giving all of these the attention and time they need. If you do that, then you are living your life to the fullest, at 100% percent of your potential.
I’ll be honest, I’m not. I’d give myself 80%, at best. Whose fault is that? Mine. This post is not meant to be negative be any means, but rather a kick in the butt to me and anyone else who needs a little inspiration to get out and do more—to feel more alive! Here’s where I’m struggling: Balance. Here was last week in numbers:
Swim: 10,050 yards
Bike: 8+ hours
Run: About 33 miles (missed one run)
Fun with friends: 0
Church: 0
Work: Plenty
Sleep: Not nearly enough!
Here’s an example of my lame weekend—go to bed way too late, wake up, train, eat, go back to bed for a nap, train, eat, go to bed way too late. Repeat on Sunday. Let’s see, were friends mentioned in there? Was going out and doing something fun mentioned? (And no, my trip to Whole Foods doesn’t count).
Granted, I’ve had a hard time making a lot of new friends here in Tampa and that has been frustrating (if you live here, get at me!), but in the same vein, my attempts at making friends haven’t been overly abundant. This is probably because I prioritize working out on my weekends, which is FINE to do, but only if I don’t go back to bed after! As for family, I had a great time when they visited last week, but I definitely bailed out of a lunch my mom had planned so that I could go eat food I was comfortable with and then take a nap before I worked out in the afternoon.
This grinch was seriously a punk ass, no lie
Sob story right? Na, this is my pledge, my vow to get my life to 110%! Why not 100%? Because that’s where I could be, but I want to reach above that, go beyond that—I want to find a way to not only improve my life, but improve the environment I am in. To make other people happier, more successful, and help them reach their goals. The best part about this is the reward it brings me and motivation to stay committed to my goals. This also means volunteering and going to church—I spend a lot of time praying, but that’s not the same as taking the time to give God the time he deserves.
So what’s my plan to make this happen?
Action plan for 1/23 – 1/30:
- Go to bed earlier. Seriously, by 1 every night for this week
- No wasting time drawing dinner out
- Workout in the morning both days this weekend
- Thus, due to going to bed earlier and working out in the morning…
- Do at least 1 fun thing this weekend during the afternoon or night
- There is a huge Gaspirilla Festival this weekend… which has something to with pirates—apparently it’s a big deal
- Dominate my workouts
- This includes eating right and including recovery after the workouts.
So Keep me honest! We’ll review next week!
Last thing is that I’m going to be starting a podcast with a friend of mine, Max. This is going to legit—we will be discussing health, nutrition, training, and interviewing some really cool (and famous) people. We’ll also be answering any questions you have, so if you start to develop some, let me know and we’ll answer them each week! Look for the first show to come out later this week where Max and I introduce ourselves a bit and discuss the purpose of the show!
Oh, and check out these awesome meatloaves I made- let me know if you want the recipe.
Peppers, onions, grass-fed beef and more!
And check out this article! Does the guy in the picture look familiar?
- What is one thing you will change for a better this week?
- How much do you sleep every night?
I gotcha Chuck. I have been really busy as well not living at 110%. What a great post. I feel like I stay constantly busy with school and such that when it comes to make a decision of weather I want to work out or hang out with friends I often choose working out (or telling my friends to come to the gym and therefore working out friends…ha). But anyways-I hope you get some sleep this week and have a good weekend!
Hey man, I have a great friend down in the Tampa area, KC she has a blog 140.6 miles of awesome haha. She is a GREAT person and a super strong cyclist and runner.
Great post. I sleep ~5hrs a night. I live in Cleveland, Ohio and plow in the winters so… sometimes I get no sleep.
Balance has been my issue since I started triathlon… there is always something else you can be doing to further your training whether it’s core work or lifting or yoga haha, oh and don’t forget hitting every single workout possible! Balance is key, good luck finding it!
It’s pretty easy to get out of balance like you mentioned. One thing that helps me is viewing excessive training as a selfish endeavor. Sure it’s hard, so we don’t automatically view it as hedonistic, but it is still a tremendous amount of time spent on ones self.
Whew, yeah, I’m running at about 60% these days, it seems like. But I always find myself stressed out when I try to incorporate more “fun stuff” into the schedule. And post-massive-house-renovation, I find myself just plopping on the couch and watching episodes of 30 Rock every night. Which is fun, but I’m starting to feel like I’m losing my edge! So difficult sometimes. Amping my workouts has been great at least–I’m finally pushing myself in that regard
Love your push for more balance–I’m going to have to work on mine, thanks for the inspiration!
Our podcast will be legit!
This post is so real, I train eat sleep but need to step it up and have a better window for socializing. It’s always a tradeoff, spend energy hanging out or train less optimally to ride with others… Such a hard balance!
I try to sleep 9-10 hours but can only get my body to get 8, or 9.5 on a good day
I’m right there w/ you! And so stuck
I’ll be checking in w/ you mister!
Hugssss!!
PS – I wish we would have met up when you were in Cincinnati…gah!
Heya Chuck great post. I know how you are feeling I’m running at maybe 50% right now tops. Work has just gotten so incredibly busy of late I don’t seem to have found time for anything else. I’ve switched to getting in a bit of excersise in the mornings to keep myself sane rather than working out for longer sporadically.
It is helping but living in an isolated area and having a job that sucks up about 70hours of my time a week is getting a bit much. My New years resolution however has been to make time for fun so if it means pulling extra hours during the week then I guess I’ll just deal with it. I don’t really have a good excuse to not enjoy myself right.
Good luck with the action plan mate I’m sure you’ll pull through. Sleeps the hardest one mate I know, when your schedule is rammed and you want to make room for people it’s the easiest thing to sacrifice. How I like to think of it is that if I’m half-dead from fatigue I’m not really gona have fun and I’m no fun to be around so sleep should be a top priority.
Take it easy matey.
oh and for the record between 0 and 7 hours depending on experiments (I had to sleep on a sofa in the lab last night ugh).
we will all keep each other honest and get to 150%, how’s that sound? Thanks for sharing Chuck. I appreciate your realness.
Hi Mr.!!! …nooooo it’s the same bike (3-months old now) but still “new” because I only ride it 1-2x/week and the bf is still teasing about my color choice! and if I do AUSTIN with you it will be my bike of choice!!
when I come visit you in May you better be ready to:
1)PARTY & DANCE *at least until my 11pm bedtime
2) Wake-up by 9am for a HARDCORE workout,
3) COOK ME delicious foods
4) go to ISLANDS of Adventure for 8+ hours…we will pack damn snacks!
You will be living at 120% if we achieve all of these things!!
xoxo!