Make the Seconds Count

Why waste time?

In the gym or in your life?

We hear the phrase "every second counts" and we apply it to our workout, but do we really understand how it applies to everything?

Every second counts. Every one.

How many times today have you not really paid attention?

Let your mind wander, let your attention drift. You gave away those moments. Discarded them. Whether it was with someone else (your boss, your co-worker, your coach, your friend, your partner, your child) or just by yourself—there was some time in the last day (probably even the last hour) where you just stopped paying attention. You were bored and you failed to use your own self-discipline to focus on the task or the person in front of you.

Those seconds meant nothing.

You threw them away. And, sadly, you can never get them back. Discarded moments of your life where you just stopped being present.

Being present is hard.

You have to focus and persevere. You have to really listen to people—listen to what they have to say to you—and not just wait for your turn to speak. You have to look and learn and really pay attention. And sometimes being present means not talking at all. (For those of us with Chatterbox Disease, this is not easy, but it needs to be done.)

We teach discipline in the gym: discipline in your set-up, your movement, your workout.

But the most important discipline you have is not in your muscles, it's in your mind.

If you can learn to be present, you can increase your PRs in every aspect of your life—in the gym, in your work, in your relationships, in your life.

Sometimes the lessons will come from others, sometimes from you, sometimes from the task itself, and sometimes just from the surprising results that occur when people really feel heard.

Every second counts. Don't waste any of them.