Creating space in your life to start running

Or any new fitness routine.

Once you have got your head around your ‘why’ and you’re ready to get started, the next thing you have to do is find the time to do it.  Of course the stronger the ‘why’ the more likely you’ll be able to create a sustainable schedule with fitness in it.

A strong ‘why’ – like ‘You’d better lose weight or you’re gonna die!” will help you find the time.  For most of us with less compelling ‘whys’ it’s going to take more thought and effort.

You are taking on something new.  How are you going to fit it into your life?  Too many times new runners forgo thinking about this challenge and just try to wing it.  If you want your practice to be sustainable you might want to take some time to figure out how to get it done.

The best way to think about it is an engineering or design problem.  How are you going to proactively engineer your life so that running fits?

The healthy lifestyle experts all say that if we could only find 20 minutes in our days for exercise we would see a step-change benefit to our health.  20 minutes out of 24 hours.  It sounds easy, right?  That’s only 1/72^nd of our available time.  How many people actually do this? Sadly, very few.

Here’s the rub.  Most of us are already using 100% of our time.  Whether it’s 20 minutes, 2 hours or 5 minutes, the time for a new activity doesn’t exist.  We have to carve out a slot for it.  Something else has to give.

The next question you will be confronted with is ‘what is your new 20 minutes of running more important than?’  What 20 minute thing are you not going to do?

After you’ve been doing the fitness activity, like running, for a few weeks or months, you’ll be hooked and it will be part of your routine, but it doesn’t get sticky right away.  In the beginning you need to carve out space for it.

With all of these ‘self-improvement’ initiatives most people will try to just squeeze it in.   When you squeeze it in you’ll only do it randomly when time and opportunity present.  Or you will try to sacrifice sleep by default.  I speak from experience when I tell you that stealing from your sleep schedule is guaranteed to fail. That is a non-sustainable solution to scheduling.

If you have an engineer’s mind you might keep a journal for a week and just track what you are actually spending your time on.  This can be a horrifying epiphany.  When you realize how much time you are spending watching bad TV, playing video games, commuting or just unaccounted for.

Maybe something will pop right out that clearly is less important than your new fitness routine?

For all you new runners, there are common tactics that we employ to get our workouts in.  Having asked this question of hundreds of busy souls who successfully find the time, these are the top X strategies.

1. Look at all the stuff you have to do and proactively schedule your workouts during the week. Make an actual appointment on your calendar for the amount of time you’ll need to get your run in.  Sit down on Sunday night and schedule the whole week so you set the expectation that they will get done.
2. Go early. Hey, nobody likes getting up early, but if you can get your workout done as the first thing in the morning, you’re guaranteed to get it done. The rest of the day is a success and you’ll find it much easier to get to bed on time!
3. Run at lunch. If you have an office job where you have set lunch breaks use them for your workout.  Not only will you avoid the temptation to eat poorly, but you will save money and use time that previously was adding no value.
4. When you start thinking about it you’ll find activities in your life that you can overlap a run with. Kids have a soccer practice? Bring your stuff and get a run in.  Live close to work? Run to work.  Need something at the store? Run an errand. You’ll be surprised what you can find when you look.
5. Set expectations. Make sure you let your family and stakeholders know what your plan is.  They may try to sabotage your workouts, it happens, but set the expectation that this is something you are going to do and they need to expect it and respect it.  Ask for support.  Maybe you’ll find some new fans.
6. Find some running partners. This can be your local running club, some friends online or a dog.  If someone is waiting for you you’ll be less likely to blow off the activity.  Use peer pressure to help you maintain your schedule.  In this case, codependency can save you.
7. Be selfish. Yes, there will be times when they have you scheduled into a corner.  Whether at work or in your family and you’ll have to stand up for yourself and do your workout anyhow.  Hold your ground and eventually they will come around or at least grudgingly respect you for it.
8. Be flexible. There are no rules other than ‘get your workout in today’.  How you do that is up to you. It can be midnight at the local track.  It can be 3:00 AM in your neighborhood.  Just make one rule: I will get it done.
9. Create a habit. After a few weeks or months your running routine will become a habit, like taking a shower or brushing your teeth.  You won’t have to think about it.  Your default setting will be to get up, get out and run.  If you don’t do it you will start to feel uncomfortable.  The key to creating habits is repetition.  Don’t let yourself miss a day or two – even if it is just a walk around the block –keep the habit.
10. Set a goal. If you create a running goal that will pull you to your workout execution you can find momentum and sustainability.  This goal could be anything.  Run every day for a month.  Run continuously for 30 minutes. Run the local 5k or half marathon.  Run every street in your town.  Find something that triggers your competitive response and make a goal out of it.  Share it with you peers so the pressure is there and you can’t back out.

Many people start an exercise or fitness routine and quit.  To create a sustainable routine in your life find a way to stick with it long enough for it to become a habit.  As you get past the first couple weeks, it may not be easier, it may not be fun but it will start to change your body and your mind.

We all know that exercise will reshape the body, but it also reshapes the mind.  This is the concept of neuroplasticity.  If you can stick with something it will rewire your brain so that something you could never imagine becomes something you can’t stop doing.

Bon chance mon ami.  Your future awaits.