It’s no secret that I’m sort of an all-or-nothing person. I’ve always been a bit extreme, and it’s what made me a great athlete and student. I am numbers driven. I like my treadmill miles to be even, my workouts to be a specific length and I am highly motivated by big round numbers. If I set out for a 5 mile run, but accidentally run 5.1, I will usually add an additional 0.9 to make it 6 miles. 55 push-ups very quickly turn into 100, and a 45-minute workout sounds much better sometimes when it’s 60 minutes. The reality though is that those ambitious add-ons that I compulsively do don’t really get me anywhere further towards anything that matters. Often this kind of thinking is actually detrimental, and arguably unnecessary.
Balance isn’t easy, so stop talking about not having it and start working towards actually practicing it.
Introduce balance into your life, and if you’re anything like me, you very well might have to force the issue. I have to make a conscientious choice sometimes to tell myself that 45 minutes is exactly the 45 minutes I need. No more, no less. Too many of us allow the excuse for lack of time prevent us from exercising at all because we’ve allowed ourselves to think that a workout is only worthwhile if it is of a specific length. The truth is though that something is always better than nothing. Furthermore, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Over-training and overexercising doesn’t make your results come any faster; instead, they limit your approach to health and can actually impedes the progress of your goals.
Balance is the key to life, but it isn’t easy. Stop talking about not having it and make today the day that you start actually practicing it.