How You Can Reduce Stress | 120 Seconds to Better Leadership

Fit in A Good Workout

What I know after being an executive coach for almost 20 years now is that most executives really don’t function at their best mentally if they’re not in good shape physically. Most execs have stressful jobs and getting a good workout in is one great way to reduce that stress. That isn’t bad for you. It’s important to make time for those workouts, but I know it’s really difficult.

I got a good idea from a client earlier this week. He’s working on some fitness goals and he says he’ll take his gym bag in the morning and he’ll put it in the locker of the gym that’s at the corporation. He says, “I won’t go home without my bag, so I’ve got to go back to the gym before I can gather my things to go home.” That act of having to go back to the gym gets him in the gym and making time for that workout.

Avoid Temptation

I know for me, I just have to bring my workout clothes with me to work, because if I go home, I’m gonna be tired, I’m gonna start making excuses, and the temptation to sit on the couch instead of changing my clothes and going to a workout class is going to be pretty high. But, if I have the clothes at work, I change in my office, and I hit, you know, hit the road. And I’m not going to go home in my workout clothes if I haven’t had a workout in. So those are just some of the ways that you can make that commitment to fitness a little more idiot proof.

Set Yourself Up for Success 

One final tip would be: careful about the time of year you start on a fitness routine. So, while here in the Midwest, at least, you know, it is starting to get colder we still have a decent amount of daylight and it’s not the most depressing part of the year. But come January, it’s going to be dark, and gray, and cold, and it just becomes more difficult tom make commitments to go out and exercise. So psychologically, if you are affected by the weather at all, start on your fitness goals now.

Please don’t wait until the first of the year, it will make it more difficult. And also if you’re starting to show gains or by losing weight now, you will be more self-controlled during the holidays because you won’t want to lose the ground that you’ve already established.

So, grab those gym bags. Hit the gym.

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