Screw Intensity

Are you getting 8 hours of sleep? Are your micro and macronutrients perfectly adjusted? Are you doing everything to optimize your recovery?

Yeah, me neither.

The common mantra in growth, fitness and life change is that you need 100% commitment. 100% effort and then when your goal is achieved you can finally relax.

The problem with this is that you are gambling that:

A) your goal will definitely be achieved before you burn out and

B) once you achieve it you will have nothing else to to.

Well I am a parent in my 40's and if I do a high intensity workout, I'm going to need a nap or a massive amount of caffeine before I get anything else done; and the kid gets out of school at 3.

I will say that if you are a professional bodybuilder who has a singular focus in their life; you get a pass. You can workout with massive intensity and then spend the next 22 hours recovering.

For the rest of us, though; sustainability is a far better plan.

Make a plan to get your exercise. Decide which days are cardio and which days are resistance training. But then, your only job is to show up.

If you consistently show up 90% of the time or more, even if you are giving 75% (Or on rough days just going through the motions) you will definitely get closer to your goals AND you are less likely to collapse from exhaustion when an unexpected emergency (or opportunity) occurs.

And...this philosophy probably will translate to other areas of your life:

Maybe you can't afford to spend $1000 on a new advertising campaign for your business - but can you improve your product? Reach out to a former customer? Do some guerilla marketing?

Maybe you can't go to that retreat in Costa Rica to learn Spanish, because you have family obligations - But can you learn a new word a day? Use a language app? Watch a Spanish language movie with subtitles?

Can you write one page of your book? Spend half an hour painting? Track your finances in an app?

I am not saying that the intense bootcamps and such don't work. They do. But they take time, money, and energy; and you will probably need some time to recover afterward. And imperfect progress works too.

Perhaps in the long run, it may even work better.

E