Lessons learned from a Workout

After months of procrastination I finally joined a local fitness center to get myself in a better shape. I have always been on a leaner side but a desire to improve my posture has always been there. But that is another story. The reason I am writing this blog is during the past few weeks I have learned a few important lessons during my workout sessions. I have tried to generalize these lessons and here they are:

1. You always have to start small and gradually build up strength. You can't expect yourself to bench even few tens of pounds from the start itself. You have to start small and gradually push your way to higher levels. The qualities that help you during this course are such as patience, honesty and self-consciousness. The reason for patience is obvious you have to go through it during a course of time; instantaneous results are not always beneficial. The reason honesty is there because you have to continue with these efforts during this course of time. You can't expect to workout for some time and then leave it there; expecting the gap won't affect you. Self-consciousness is also a very important quality during this initial phase. You have to understand and respect your boundaries/limitations during this time. You have to focus on your needs and let the time take its course.
2. Secondly you have to have a holistic approach. You don't want your arms to be strong and legs weak! This is more about deciding your own priorities with consideration to your surroundings. What are your surroundings? These are nothing but things like your family, your finances, your work and your own mind & body. Complete concentration onto just one aspect of your life blinds you to the need of the others. Eli Goldratt in his book, The Goal, states that as working professionals we at most time ignore our family needs. So it is important to have a holistic view of your needs.
3. You have to continuously work on improving yourself. By improvement I don't just mean improving your skills in your profession but you can improve yourself personally, physically, mentally, spiritually and many more. You can try to become a better person to people around you, or try to get in a better physical/mental shape. Any improvement in yourself would not only give you a sense of accomplishment but would lead to improvement of things around you. And if things start to improve obviously we are more happier. The word "Kaizen" meaning continuous improvement is popular in manufacturing environment but it is not limited to just that. It goes beyond manufacturing/service environment further in to your general life & beyond.
4. Another important lesson I learned was never ignore small things. Any person who works out regularly knows the importance of every meal during a day. He/she knows a weight of five pounds or twenty five pounds doesn't really matter unless you use it in the right way for the right muscle in your body. In the same way small things in our life matter a lot. What if for one day you don't get a breakfast or unable to receive your emails. You feel disconnected and out of sorts! In a team (or even within a family) these "small things" are people who are directly/indirectly helping you achieve your goals. It's been said the sum of parts is greater than the whole. So all these people who help you are in fact contributing more to your achievements than you can imagine!

Finally some sort of physical activity even helps to keep your mind fresh and healthy. And to me it gave me an insight into my daily behaviour too! Thanks for reading.