“I’d love to do more exercise, but I don’t have time”
“I’m too busy to get to the gym”
Sound familiar?
I’ve said these words before. And I hear them a lot from clients I work with.
What I want to ask today is…”where are you spending your time?”
More specifically, “where are you spending the 72 hours you have free each week?”
This originates from a TED talk I watched which bought home the importance of how we prioritise our time. Here’s the learning in a nutshell.
There are 168 hours in a week.
If we allow for sleeping (8 hours a day – which honestly, most of us don’t get!)
And working (8 hours a day during weekdays)
That leaves us with 72 hours.
72 hours.
Now, how many of those are you moving your body?
And how many are you spending on social media?
Watching TV?
Or doing things that don’t make you feel good?
The idea is not to judge yourself, but to really evaluate where your priorities are.
When you start to think about it like that, you realise that moving your body for an hour a day (less than 10% of that free time!) is not such a big ask.
This doesn’t mean you have to go to fitness classes. Or buy a gym membership.
You just need to move your body, 7 days a week. Whether that’s walking, cycling, dancing, lifting weights, practicing yoga, doing an online workout, stretching, swimming or jogging – that’s up to you.
The important thing is that you do it.
Because dedicating that 10% of your free time to movement is one of the BEST investments you can ever make. And it’s free.
Yes it’s more difficult if you have children.
And I realise if you have a business or two jobs then your free time is likely to be less.
But the question remains, what’s your priority, and what’s most important to you?
Because if it’s your health (both mental and physical), then it’s time to re-evaluate your focus, and take control of some of that time. For you. For your body.