No Time to Exercise? Maybe Time Isn’t the Problem.

I meet people all the time who take one look at my physique and say “Wow. Where do you find the time to work out?” The truth is I don’t have time to exercise. I make it.

The Rarest Commodity

Time is the one commodity none of us can make more of. If we lose money we can make it back. If we lose love, we can find another. But time? Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. All of us only have so many minutes to live. The only choice we get is what we do with that time.

There are many things I would like to do and to learn. I’d love to learn to play guitar. I’d like to learn to speak Spanish, Italian and French. I love to dance and would like to learn to Tango better. But all of these things take time. I study every day, as I’m learning to program. Then I work, often until late in the evening (I’m writing this at 8:15). I go to bed around 9:30 and get up at 5 to go work out. On the weekend I spend as much time with my kids as I can, clean the house and generally do all the maintenance tasks we all have to do. Somewhere in there I make time for my friends whenever I can. The point is, I’m a pretty ordinary guy. I work for a living, trading time for money, just like most of you. I have a family who needs my time and attention. With the time that’s left over I have to decide what’s important to me.

What’s Important To You?

From a young age (well, what seems ‘young’ from the viewpoint of 52) I saw people growing old before they needed to. People in their 50’s, 40’s and even younger who were so out of shape they already had serious health problems. People who couldn’t do what I considered to be basic physical activities like go for a hike or an afternoon bike ride. People who didn’t even have the energy to play with their kids. I decided that would never be me, so I chose to make looking after myself a priority. In choosing that, I chose to not have some of the other things I want. There’s only so many hours in the day.

So, what do you want? The truth is you do have time to work out, it’s just not a high enough priority for you to drop other things. How many hours a week do you spend watching television? Reading? Doing a hobby?

You’re trapped inside your body 24/7/365. You can’t get out. You can’t leave and you sure can’t switch it for another one when it wears out. Making time to exercise is really the only option if your don’t want your body to fail you.

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Will Dove

Author
Will is a lifelong fitness nut. He started exercising religiously at the age of 16. Now 52, he still works out 5 times per week and maintains a body fat percentage in the single digits. Will is passionate about helping others to achieve their fitness and body image goals, and believes that most people fail to achieve these goals, not through a lack of self-discipline, but through a simple lack of knowledge.