Balance To Fitness and Well Being

When you're a busy parent with young children, how do you handle the demands of family and work and still make time to train, condition, stay fit and tone? How do you balance everything?

Much like every sports athlete chants, "You just have to do it."
Make the choice

Make the decision on what is important to you. Take charge of your own personal management and lay down priorities.

Start by asking yourself the following questions:
What is my mission?
What is important to me?
Am I living life or is life living me?
What is my personal accountability?
What do I value?

Also, identify the roles you play in your life and pick the top seven. Look at the people who know you in each of those roles, and think about what they'll say about you on your 80th birthday.

As Stephen Covey asks in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, what have you done to "sharpen the saw"? How do you renew yours elf in the areas of physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual? Make sure there is balance in all four.
Much like in Stephen Covey's famous visual about priorities, focus on YOUR rocks. These should be scheduled first because they are the most important. If you haven't defined your rocks yet, you'll have trouble setting priorities. After that, it's all a matter of personal integrity and discipline.

Covey says it's about setting practical goals and sticking to them. He tells the story of a mother who wanted to train for a race but also wanted to go to her son's games. She was able to accomplish both by walking or running around the field while her son was playing.

For families sit down together and plan the year, even couples with young children, take the time to plan. This gives each member an opportunity to identify their priorities and start the scheduling to make them happen. It also opens the discussions on how everyone can achieve their goals. Another idea is to get other family members involved in your training or exercise.

What happ ens if the demands of family and work prevent you from engaging in fitness time? Fitness experts agree, "If you don't spend the time up front, you will spend it later being sick."
The usual suspects

He suggests keeping a training log like most serious athletes do, as well as a family log to track the time spent on family activities. Doing so will help maintain balance and place value on family time.

What about the common complaint that there's just not enough time to work out?

Just like everything else, take look at the things that are preventing you from accomplishing your goals. Some of the usual culprits are the Internet, emails, YouTube, and TV.

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