I have been struggling lately with making sure that I exercise.  Oh yes, I know all the benefits and the rewards of exercise.  I know that it will keep me healthy and strong and that I will live to be a strong little old lady and be able to hold my own with all the old ladies in the home.  But I also know that exercise equals sweating, time expenditure, sweating, hard work, solitude and oh did I mention sweating.  See my dilema.

Of course this is another problem to be solved so I tried to think of this as if I were my own client, because let’s face it I need to get on the machine and start sweating right?  What would I tell a client?  I would likely start by commending them for recognizing their need to exercise…good for me, I know I have a need.  Next I would tell them to start slowly, not to bite off more than I can chew or sweat to, in the case.  So I came up with my “trick yourself into climbing on the machine” plan.  That is I tell myself just 20 minutes.  Now because I can easily do three times that amount if I can just get on the machine, twenty minutes doesn’t seem so bad.  I absolutely promise myself to do twenty minutes a day, and once I am on, if I feel good I do more, and I usually average about thirty minutes.  Really I am that dumb!  Actually it is the feel good effect, you feel good that you actually got on the machine, and the exercise raises the endorphin levels, and voila, thirty minutes of sweating.

Most things in life are pretty much like that.  If you can just get on the machine, start the job, make the call, or start the first page, you can make it happen.  What do you have to do today that you hate to do?  What is the insurmountable task ahead of you?  Just do it for twenty minutes and see what happens.  Just twenty minutes will equal success.  What can you succeed at for twenty minutes?  Let’s get to it!