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The Case for Physical Fitness

WE ARE EXPECTED and required to behave and perform at a certain level at work, at home, in school, on our athletic teams, in civic organizations, and in the religious or spiritual community we associate with. To do so, to be great teammates and great team leaders on all the teams of which we are a part, requires an incredible amount of positive energy! Positive energy that we can give to our spouse, our children, and our coworkers. Positive energy that both our teammates and the mission deserve. Physical fitness provides it.

Mitochondria are energy-producing organs found in every cell of the body. As soon as we start to exercise, our body produces more of them. More mitochondria produce even more energy. This isn’t something that The Program believes. This is what science teaches us.

For the purpose of this book, The Program considers a “fit” person to be strong, fast, and flexible, with good overall nutrition and wellness for their chosen sport, job, or lifestyle. It only makes sense that a very fit climber (with a lot of energy) will find climbing a mountain easier than a less fit one (who has less energy). It only makes sense that a fit athlete will find a workout or game less strenuous than an unfit athlete. The same is true regardless of the battlefield: a very fit Marine will not find a 20-mile hike or battle as difficult as an unfit Marine. A fit Fortune 500 salesperson or CEO will find a long, difficult business trip less strenuous than an unfit one. This is true for all of us, including being a fit husband, or wife, raising children.

Many of us will never find ourselves climbing one of the world’s highest mountains, but we are all sons or daughters, husbands or wives, fathers or mothers. We are all members of a family, an athletic team, musical band, school, hospital, or corporate team. The fitter person will have more energy than the less fit one—energy we can invest in our own efforts at reaching the summits in our lives, and in our teammates who are attempting their own. All others things being equal, the more fit person will be a better teammate and better team leader than an unfit one.

So many things concern us. The most successful individuals and teams choose to stay focused only on that which they can control. We control our fitness level. Stay focused on it! The more fit we are, the more energy we have for all the battlefields we fight on, for the teammates we fight alongside, and the mission for which we fight.

The more fit we are, the more energy we have for all the battlefields we fight on, for the teammates we fight alongside, and the mission for which we fight.

Great fitness allows us to perform at or close to our physical and mental peak in perfect conditions. Unfortunately, Mt. Everest never has perfect conditions, and neither does life! Furthermore, regardless of how fit we may be, we will eventually face a type or level of adversity that we will not be able to overcome just because we have more energy. It is then that our physical and mental toughness will allow us to persevere, continue to make good mental decisions, and accomplish the mission.

Action Items on Physical Fitness

Growth or improvement in any aspect of our lives only occurs when we are outside of our comfort zone (i.e., outside of what we currently feel comfortable doing). Our physical fitness is no exception.

  1. Know that you determine your fitness level and, regardless of its current level, you can improve it.
  2. Set small goals. Most of us aren’t training for something. We are exercising for life. We are all becoming more fit regardless of the duration or intensity of the exercise. Set a goal to do it a few times for a little while every week. You can build from there.
  3. Make a plan or enlist someone to help you do so. Stick to the plan. If you don’t, shake it off and try again tomorrow. When training for a race or competition, a missed day can have dire consequences. When exercising for life, a missed day will have almost no consequence, unless it becomes two missed days in a row. And then three. And then . . . if you miss a day, reattack it tomorrow.
  4. Tell family and friends about your fitness goals. Peer pressure helps. However, if our family and friends aren’t helping us to become healthier human beings, we should spend less time with those family members and get different friends.
  5. Do One More™! Review what you did during your last workout and then do it for 30 seconds longer or one rep more during this one. (There’s more on One More™ in Section 6.)
  6. Be committed. It is easier to be committed once we have made exercise a habit. Unfortunately, old, bad habits never completely go away, but thankfully we can create new, good ones. This takes more than a few weeks though. Commit to exercising for a month. Stay focused on doing it today. As entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn said, “Commitment is doing what you said you would do long after the mood you said it in has left.”

 

Saved Round on Physical Fitness

Ready!? Attack! Always remember that there is no true thing in life as “just maintaining.” We are either getting better or we are getting worse. Compared to either our competition or, more importantly, the best version of ourselves, if we aren’t becoming a better coach, doctor, lawyer, salesperson, parent, or spouse, we are becoming a comparatively worse one. The salesperson who doesn’t read how-to-be-better-at-sales books or who stops doing something to perfect their chosen craft is getting comparatively worse than the one who continues to improve. The same is true on any battlefield. As human beings, we hit our anabolic (strength) peak at approximately twenty-five years of age and our aerobic peak at approximately thirty-two years of age. “Just maintaining” our fitness after that and our bodies and fitness levels will naturally deteriorate. We get better or we become worse. There is no middle ground. Don’t “just maintain” your fitness level and, most importantly, don’t “just maintain” any other aspect of your life. Attack it!

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