The Hindu Business Line : If you have the will...

People ask me, "How do I set up an exercise schedule for myself?" Rid your mind of all excuses to transform `no time' into `now time'. Prioritise like a pro. Remember, those who get and stay fit do so not because of a superior equipment, technique, trainer, teacher, but because of supreme determination.

Dwell on the immense conduits to fitness available in abundance for you. Sun-dappled slopes, private hamming spots at home, gyms abrim with energy; yoga, tai chi, aerobics, weight-training... Become stirringly aware of these means to shift your focus from merely acknowledging their existence to a compelling yearning to use them. Theoretical acknowledgement is only the awakening of the intellect, but it's the intense emotional longing of the heart to partake that fires you to participate. As hunger for nourishment drives you to food, let hunger for betterment drive you to fitness. Then, as chewing, swallowing, assimilating of food fills you, let participating, performing, practising satiate you. And as the remembered pleasure of eating drives you to your next meal, let the remembered freshness of exercising drive you to your next session. As fitness benefits accrue, as self-enhancement, self-esteem flower, let every session be a mission.

For the benefits to be experienced, be regular. To be regular, choose a time you can integrate easily into your daily schedule. Then, stick to it unrelentingly. For Deepak, a construction engineer, it's 7 a.m. For Nandita, a doctor and single parent, it is 6 p.m. Each welds reason to his and her reality. Says Deepak, "When I begin the day with a significant act like exercising, I do significant things right through the day that give me a sense of accomplishment. Otherwise, I seem to end up doing inconsequential things that leave me frustrated."

Says Nandita, "I have a busy morning preparing my daughter for school and other home-oriented activities before I attend my clinic. Exercising after I've finished with my patients sends a signal to my psyche that now I'm on my own healing trip with all the cares of the day behind me."

Both make personal practical sense. Essentially, it's balancing an important inner need and urgent external requirements with timenomics-choosing a time-slot, being there on the dot, and doing nothing else except the targeted activity during this time, in this place. If you miss your fitness session due to unavoidable circumstances, reschedule it now. For example, pre-dinner or TV-viewing time.

Every time your commitment flags, stop and think:

The loss you incur that day.

The opportunity for self-betterment you let slip through your fingers.

The trivial detail you add to your life by avoiding what is self-empowering. Re-focus daily on your commitment. Nobody questions you when you miss your fitness class. So, you stem the slide, you cheer yourself on. The gain is you as your own source of uplifting energy.

Dr George Sheehan who launched his own "rejuvenation regime", at age 45, affirms, "Exercise regularly. This is the rule that makes all the others work." And computer scientist David Gelertner describes as "the middle focus" zone when the mind-finished with the "high-focus" work-oriented zone that involves swift decisions and actions and the "low focus" emotional zone of caretaking-is free to float in creative "unconcentration". Here, perceptions get corrected, hard stances soften as you get illuminating insights into situations that are in the high focus zone. In short, you re-think and return reborn with a new attitude.

Yet, despite such multi-benefits, people stop exercising. It's because they don't see exercise as a technique to self-growth. Some drop out because the novelty wears out; some because they don't get the desired result instantly; some simply because the effort seems too much. But, as I advise my students, "when your motivation lowers, let your momentum drive you until motivation returns."

For, the mind works in four stages. The first stage of unconscious incompetence has the beginner's excitement. The second-conscious incompetence-is when you may find a few exercises difficult and get muscle aches. Here, while some get discouraged, most continue, wanting to overcome this challenge. The third-conscious competence-is when you master all movements but they still require attention, concentration. This is where most slacken, drop out, feeling they've done enough. Hang on! The fourth, the desired stage of unconscious competence — when you smoothly execute all exercises effortlessly and feel physically and mentally free-is breathtakingly close! Here's when you realise in a flash that fitness is a verb, not a noun. A melting action — when supreme determination thaws into supreme ease...

The writer is co-author of the book, `Fitness for Life'.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
As unique as you

A real green thumbs-up

If you have the will...

The buzz-word is business

What price life?

CEO — myth and reality

Travelling through Tuscany

In the land of the Mizos

Revisiting Buddhism

Shot in the UK

Towards transparency

Brand building in the Internet age

Small is big

Excel 2002, Programming with VBA

Cisco Security Bible