100 Business Days Out: Day 17 - Conditioning

A common question I am getting now is “are you running/working out a lot in all of your free time”? The answer, by the way, is yes. But, what I find fascinating about the question is that there seems to be a built-in expectation that when someone doesn’t have to go to work everyday that they should be in the gym a couple of hours a day and that this must be the period that you get in the best shape of your life. What I have found is that the question usually is rooted in the person who is asking and projecting themselves and their desires on you when they pose the query. It’s almost like if you were to answer, “Not really, in fact I am spending most of my extra time drinking and eating and I’m gaining lots of weight”, that you would be doubly failing. Failing yourself and failing them. There are lots of stories of first time marathons, triathlons, mountain climbs, etc., coming from those who are on “sabbatical”. I will admit that the same thoughts have gone through my own mind. At least in me some of that has to do with the need for goals and objectives to strive for, reach and exceed. And at the same time, get into better and better shape, so that when you see someone for the first time since you quit working that you get., “wow, you look great…10 years younger…all that exercise and sleep is treating you well”. Didn’t I write about self-worth once before? :)