I spoke with a former trainer of mine the other day and was reminded of something very subtle yet impactful for me.  As soon as I heard his voice I flashed back to those days on the field at the Phoenix Swim Club when I got to train with the guys preparing for the NFL combine.  There was a mix of college guys and a bunch of current pros who were training in the off season.  It was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget.  A frequent saying of his was:

Don’t Mistake Activity for Achievement

Sounds simple enough but these words held a profound concept that many people miss.   If you are not an athlete, don’t worry this still applies and I have a very good real world reference for you as well coming up.  As for those of us who do train, work out, run, swim, whatever, this is a principal that must be adhered to in order to progress.  Spending an hour in the pool splashing around enjoying the water does not make you a better swimmer.  A game plan laid out in advance, a defined number of laps to swim and which stroke(s) you are working on, a lap counter set on your watch all show that you are knee deep in achievement mode.  The former example was just activity; yes, it beats sitting on the couch, but only by a little.

As someone who workouts out on a regular basis I can attest to the fact that just being in the gym isn’t enough.  I see people all the time at LA Fitness that treat their time there as a social happy hour.  They do a set on a machine and then go find someone to talk to.  They chat for a while and then maybe saunter back over to the machine they were using for another set a few minutes later.  The casual companionship seems to be the goal, nothing truly fitness oriented.  Don’t get me wrong, if this is what you want, great, then do it.  But if you are telling yourself that you are working out to lose weight, you are going about it the wrong way.  Osmosis is not the answer; don’t mistake the activity of being in the gym for the achievement of a planned workout session.

If you have ever heard Michael Phelps talk about his training regimen as he was preparing for the Olympics, you know what I mean.  While this is the extreme end of the spectrum and I don’t endorse that for the average person just trying to lose the Dad bod, if you want to be the best of the best, this is the roadmap.  He did not miss a single workout for five years, not one day off.  Never got sick, no injuries that couldn’t be trained around.  That’s a total of 2920 days in a row of training in just this stretch.  He was in the pool on Christmas and other holidays too.  He documented everything.  Remember, he trained almost his whole life to reach the point of being an Olympic swimmer.  This was a man with a plan…a very detailed, specific plan of daily goals and required work to achieve something great.  If you are “just” trying to get into better shape, you don’t need to mimic this exact approach, but you should look at the high level view of this and benefit from the mindset.

I speak to college students on a regular basis, and one thing I hear all the time is the phrase “I just don’t have enough time to __________” insert whatever, study, work out, spend time with family, etc.  Then I ask them to grab their phone and see how much screen time they had over the past week.  There are people who think they don’t have time to do things that have over six hours a day of screen time.  I am guilty of spending a fair amount of time on social media myself, but this is after I get everything else in my day accomplished.  I have no issue with that, I treat it as a reward for a good day’s work.  It does not keep me from going to the gym or getting stuff done.  I have a very simplified life, no kids, easy job, great relationship with my wife.  I realize that makes things easier for me than most, but it wasn’t always like this.  And I still got stuff done; during my own sports career I too trained twice a day, lifted weights, stretched, ran sprints, ate like an athlete in training.  It is a matter of organization and prioritization.

It is simple but it is not easy.  Here is how I do this, and have for a really long time.  I sit down and write a list of the things I need to accomplish tomorrow, organize the list into a reasonable approach to the day and set it on the bathroom counter.  I like to lift weights in the mid to late afternoon, so I structure my day to allow this.  I start work early and schedule my calls and presentations as early in my day as possible.  I can always come back from the gym and return emails but my East Coast clients are no longer in their office, so this portion of my job has to be done in alignment with that.  I don’t allow myself to get bogged down with unimportant tasks or busy work.  I have my march orders, laid out the night before, and I execute those orders.  Writing the list is easy, having the discipline to make sure those things happen, in that order throughout the day, is the more difficult part.  I have lived this way for a really long time, so for me it is second nature.  Like anything else, it takes practice to make it a habit.  You can easily incorporate this approach into your life as well.

Don’t mistake activity for achievement…still living this principal many years later.  I don’t sit at my desk at work when I don’t have anything to do at that moment.  I organize, prioritize and get sh*t done.  When my day job work is done, I move onto the things I need to get to personally.  In the immortal words of Jocko Willink:  Discipline Equals Freedom.  When you have a task list to start the day, you know what to do and when to do it.  And when it is complete, now you have freedom to do as you wish.  If you want to sit on the couch and scroll through social media for the remainder of the day, go for it.  You’ve earned it.  But do not do this until that list has every item scratched off of it.  If you start every day without a game plan, you’ll end up just like everyone else who is spinning their wheels instead of making things happen.

I wish you luck in your endeavors.