5 Tips to Boost Productivity!

Make no mistake, I'm not an expert in productivity, at least in the direct sense.  How I consider myself to be pretty good at productivity considering what I do in my day-to-day routine.  I've chronicled in a previous post how I go about my day, and here are some tips that may help lead you to be more productive during your day. 

• Wake up early
• This doesn't have to be super early, but 15 min can be a game-changer
• Plan ahead
• I have certain things that change day to day and I go ahead and plan/schedule them a few days in advance
• Meal Prep
• Social Media Posts
• Be on time
• The Marine Corps taught us that "Fifteen minutes early is on time.  On time is late.  And late is you're dead."  I live by this and it helps. 
• Don't sweat the small stuff
• I tend to remain fairly low-stress.  Sometimes a large thing catches me off-guard, but nothing I can't handle.  Learn how to deal with daily stress though exercise, meditation, or even just talking through it and you'll see a change.  
• Pray
• Pray often.  When you ask the Lord to help you with your problems, stress, and life...He Will!!!!  Pray in the car, pray in the shower, pray everywhere!  When you can do this, I promise your life will change.  

I'm often in awe of people who look at me and what I do in awe.  This is because how I do my life is normal for me, and I find it to be nothing special.  What I outlined in the 5 tips is what I do regularly and seem to be able to maintain my lifestyle (and my family's) long-term.  

Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Exercise to live, not live to exercise!

Why do you exercise?  Is it something that helps for you to function throughout a day?  Is it something to relieve stress?  What about just feeling good?  Does it do that?

Do you exercise to function in life or does your life function to exercise?  These are basically opposite of each other.  On the one hand you have the sole purpose of being able to do the things that you love better, on the other hand your purpose is entirely to be better at exercise.  Both of them are valid and both of them are real in many people. 

The majority of us exercise to live.  We enjoy things that aren't related to exercise, at least directly.  I enjoy spending time with my family, reading & writing, and many other things unrelated to exercise.  Exercise, to me, is to make my life easier.  Walking up the stairs in the middle of the night to get one of the kids, or doing work around the house, or even teaching my oldest daughter how to box, are why I exercise.  It makes these tasks easier and more enjoyable.  Though the exercise itself may be very unpleasant. 

A minority lives to exercise.  This is a radically different state of mind.  Probably the best example I can give, and it's not really the best, are the case of many CrossFitters...who spend much of the time discussing workouts, doing workouts, and thinking about the next workout.  There's nothing wrong with this state of mind either, but in my opinion, there's more to life than workouts. 

Now, an even smaller minority is paid to exercise.  These individuals can be seen in many forms, even when they're not being directly paid (in the case of collegiate athletes).  Many receive sponsorships of some kind and these individuals can serve as inspiration to those who do not live to exercise. 

So which do you do?  Exercise to live?  Or live to exercise?  Take some time to think about your answer and why you choose to do what you do.  

You're the inspiration!

As I was riding in the car last week, I got to thinking that I should share those people who have or continue to inspire me.  I can honestly say that this list will not consist of celebrities (mostly), largely because if they act in film or whatever, it's not tremendously inspiring.  There are only a small handful of people that I f
eel have brought me to where I am right now, but it's still important that I note them.  Also important to note, not all of these people are currently alive.

1.  Jesus Christ = This should be easy, but I feel like you should know/realize that he is super importan
t in my life.  Without him, we are nothing and with him, everything.

2.  Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller = The Marine's Marine.  He exeplefies confidence and heroism by only doing his job.  He changed lives for the better (unless you were Chinese or a Korean, the Northern kind) and his legacy still lives on.

3.  My parents = They get a team effort here, largely because they set the stage for me to become who I am today. 

4.  James "Chaos" (not Mad-dog) Mattis = Another Marine's Marine.  He keeps it straight and is always ready to throw-down on behalf of his Marines (and now the whole military). 

5.  Walt Disney = He created, he followed his dream, and he created an empire. 

6.  Arnold Schwarzenegger = His work influenced me, in-part, to the career that I'm in. 

7.  Everyone whom I've ever come into contact with.  While this is extremely general, I try to take 1 ounce of wisdom from each and every person that I come across.  Each life is different and each have something to offer, and thus I become better through them. 

I believe that every person has something to offer, either good or bad.  Nevertheless, it's important to recognize that each of us have different experiences and different backgrounds.  When we be kind and nice to others, they will (eventually) project that knowledge to you and you gain from that.  Be a douche and it's unlikely that it will ever happen. 

This is a list of my inspiration, think about yours and why they are your inspiration.  This helps to figure out who you are and what you stand for. 

A curve-ball to the face

Life can send you into many directions, some of which you prepare for and some that you cannot.  In my previous post, I talked about how life will ultimately kill you in the end.  Here I want to talk about how you need to adapt to life and what happens within it.

My life is generally fairly simple.  It's wake up around 5-6 a.m. most days, go to work and train anywhere between 5 & 10 people (excluding any classes), come home around 5-6 (depending on the day), eat dinner, get the kids ready for bed and to sleep, prepare for the following day, and hopefully spend a little time with my wife.  Most days follow that schedule pretty well without any variation in it.

Trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle when you've got that much going on isn't an easy thing to accomplish.  Yet daily my wife and I generally do that.  She tries to go for a walk with her friends each day around lunch, and if you have ever been to the western North Carolina mountains, you know those walks aren't easy.  I try to lift each day or at least most of them, and I also am pretty active in my boxing & kickboxing classes that I teach.

As you can see, it's pretty busy in general.  Sometimes the difficulty lies in what we eat or not eat.  What I alluded to in my previous post regarding the one individual who gave me a little crap about what I was eating has no idea what I do in my life on a daily basis.  What I know about him is that he's single, no kids, doesn't really have to pour himself emotionally and physically into the people he works with, and lastly can likely spend the time to prepare his meals weekly without having to deal with the chaos of life.

Many live the life that is much more similar to mine than his.  When you're dealing with kids the only consistency is that there is no consistency.  For the record, my oldest is 4 years old, just so you get an idea of the chaos that we deal with.  Planning meals is relatively easy for when I'm at work, it's the home ones that become challenging because of when we get off work or any number of other things.  There have been days where I've been off work first, made dinner, the kids and I ate, and my wife was home a couple-several hours late.  The curve-ball to the face.

If your life is this hectic, you're not alone.  The first step is to identify what you want most, exercising or eating better, you can have both but if you're not used to it it's better to pick one and start there.  With some coaching you can receive a profound difference in your life, but if you try to go it alone you will struggle because it's not like you have enough on your plate.

Welcome to life in all of it's glory.  Just keep up with it and you'll be fine.