Finding the Time Part 3: Thought Hurdles
In Part 1 of this series, we discussed making a commitment to ourselves. In Part 2, we talked about scheduling exercise onto our planner with the same importance as work, school, family obligations, or our routine dental visit. If you’ve been keeping a training journal the last few weeks, and if you’ve tried to find the time in your schedule, how did that go for you? What thoughts came up?
This week, let’s take a deeper dive into some common thoughts that may be causing barriers to achieving goals.
Thought #1: There are so many other things on my to-do list - exercise can wait.
Thought #2: I feel guilty leaving the kids to go out for a run.
Thought #3: I am so tired - there’s no way I can even think about exercise right now.
Let’s start with Thought #1. We briefly discussed in Part 1 of the series, that our to-do list is not getting shorter anytime soon. We all lead busy lives, and that busy-ness looks different for each of us. It’s up to us to make ourselves a priority. So let’s consider a few alternative thoughts. How do these make you feel?
Exercise is a priority.
By putting exercise on my to-do list, I’m making a commitment to myself.
For me, these thoughts are empowering. My action of exercise leads to the result of “taking care of myself” and/or “keeping a commitment to myself.”
How about Thought #2? Did this one come up for you? You may find yourself feeling guilty for leaving your kids to go out and exercise, that to leave them to do something for you, might somehow be selfish. Or, you find yourself thinking that if you leave the kids with your partner or with a babysitter, that you are putting more work on that individual, and you feel guilty about that too.
I’d like to offer some alternative thoughts to try on for size. How do each of these thoughts make you feel?
My time spent exercising helps me to de-stress and to be truly present when I am with my kids.
My time spent exercising sets a good example for my kids.
If we have these thoughts, accompanied by a positive feeling, what actions and results will follow? Our action to exercise, will then lead to a result - maybe “feel better about myself,” and/or, “be a better mom.”
Let’s consider Thought #3, and a variation that often comes up for me, “I’m too tired to run.” We must prioritize rest and sleep, and to be sure, we’ll discuss these in great detail in the future, but for now, I’m not talking about devoting hours to a weekend long run in this case. We are still focusing on finding five/ten/twenty minutes a day to exercise. And I know that you are thinking that the circumstance is “I’m too tired to exercise,” but truly, this is also a thought that our minds are creating.
What about some alternative thoughts:
I have more energy and am less fatigued when I exercise.
Exercising for 15 minutes this afternoon will help me to fall asleep more quickly tonight.
How do these thoughts make us feel? What actions and results will follow? Maybe these thoughts make us feel energetic? Determined? Our action to exercise will result in “better sleep” and/or “sticking to our exercise plan.”
This is a small sampling of how we can make the Thought Model work for each of us. If you’re feeling a little lost on the Thought Model, please head on back and read the blog post here: https://mindful-marathon.com/blog/thought-model
The circumstance is the same in all of these examples: “Go for a walk/run,” or keep it even simpler, “Exercise.” But the thoughts and feelings about this circumstance are unique to each of us. We can create the actions and results we desire, but the thought to create these results has to be believable to us. It takes some time and some work, but we’ve got this.
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