Manage competing pressures

The view at the zoo

The view at the zoo

Managing your competing pressures

Life is just full of competing pressures isn’t it. You want to

  • move well
  • eat well
  • and recover well

but everything is against you.

  • At work you’re chained to a desk
  • you get around sitting in a car
  • grabbing food on the go
  • you don’t have time, or skills in the kitchen
  • at home you’re tired so you sit and eat the wrong things

It’s tough so don’t beat yourself up about it. I’m a software developer by day so I don’t get paid unless I’m sitting down but I was determined to make my lifestyle fit my current life instead of trying to pick an apparently healthy one and try to fit my life to it’s specific demands.

The solution is to take steps to learn to manage all the competing demands and find fit everything in to your life, and if you combine it with steps from play you will have a smile while you do it.

It’s right here in front of you

The secret to fitting in all in is to see that the healthy lifestyle is right there in front of you in the life you are already leading and not in some magical place like:

  • the gym
  • the health foodstore
  • the mythical extra quiet time

When I explored fitting everything in I noticed that

  • the gym is my house or basically where ever I am
  • healthy food is just a wide variety of nice food, off the shelf or cooked by myself, it doesn’t matter
  • quiet time is never far away now I’ve learnt to tune out when I need to.

The brilliant result is that my healthy lifestyle:

  • Saves me time
  • Saves me money
  • Is more fun
  • Gives me more energy

This is what compete is all about, managing your daily pressures so that they build you instead of breaking you.

Daily task list

You start by making a task list where you include everything you need to do each day and each week. It doesn’t have to be an extensive list at first just something that shows you how much you actually have on your plate and all the opportunities that already exist where healthy upgrades are possible.

  • Cleaning: doing the dishes, washing, car or house
  • Tidying
  • DIY
  • Shopping
  • Work
  • Travel and commuting

This isn’t a full list just an idea of the things we all have to do every day that can add to your health if you let them.

Each of these tasks is a chance to:

  • move better
  • eat better
  • or recover better

Getting them done counts as a step in compete,

Need more motivation?

to get more motivation so you don’t put them off you take a step in play adding a little fun:

  • listening to the radio or an audio book. this is one of my favourites
  • give yourself a treat at the end. Just think about what you were going to have any way so you’re not adding anything and only have it when you’ve got the job done.

checkout play for motivation for more ideas

Need healthy options?

To get ideas on adding healthy options to a task check out create more options

 

How do I smile while I fit it all in?

Once you have compiled your list take a step by doing one of the tasks, probably something simple and make it fun. An example is doing the dishes or cleaning while listening to the radio or an audio book. Seriously, it’s that simple.

Each time you chose to combine doing one of these tasks with something fun then you are taking a step toward managing your competing demands. Over time doing task like this becomes an opportunity to do play because you replace the boredom with fun things

The value to you is that you

  • move more
  • save time
  • get stuff done
  • reduce your to do list
  • create time for yourself

More resources

compete.fit2thrive.co.uk is the companion site designed to support the competitive aspect of Fit2Thrive. The focus is on helping you manage the competing demands on your time while learning how to improve your health and happiness.

There is also lots more on pinterest

Next steps

As you start taking steps in play and making new memories you will need to look at the other types of step in Fit2Thrive

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