Busy people are a joke, especially CEO's, partners, business owners

...they just don't fit into the current health system. 

I started working with them 12 years ago completely by accident really. 

I was given I great opportunity to work in a high-end personal training studio in Bristol business quarter. 

Actually, I ended up owning place a few years later. 

That wasn't the joke. 

The joke was that everything I had learned up to that point needed to be thrown out of the window. 

I would sit down opposite a new client and start imparting my knowledge.

I'm gonna need you to knock the alcohol on the head is that ok? 

Nope sorry, I have to entertain clients...

I'm gonna need you to count your calorie intake ok? 

No words, just a look that says clearly

"This guy is mental!" 

Ok, deal breaker, 3 one hour sessions per week.

Flat out laughter this time.

12 years on and I don't want to work with anyone else. 

But the principles taught to personal trainers and coaches are next to useless when your time isn't your own. 

The truth is that the further up the business ladder you climb, the more people you serve.

I've had to develop my own principles and training that either don't rob time or actually create more of it. 

Prime for what follows:

The nervous system has optimal states that result in optimal performance. 

Boxers prepare for fights, they don't just walk in to the ring. They play music, limber up, summon mental focus. 

They may not know it but they are priming their nervous system for what's next. 

Digestion, sleep, presentations, meetings, interviews, exercise, everything has a prime state. It may be hard to consistently know what's next but we can learn to prime for what follows on any given day. 

Practise discomfort:

We are wired to escape discomfort. Hunger, cold, pressure to fit in, tiredness, muscular fatigue, all of it gently trying to persuade us. Not in the interest of our objective but in the interest of making it stop. 

Comfort eating, mood swings, procrastination, alcohol all of those behaviours that just happened rather than selected in advance, they are the response to this persuasion. 

Practising discomfort strengths our immune system our body and our minds. We are forged by our struggles. If we practise them we control them. If we decide not to practise them we will be over run by them and likely not have the body and mind to win one day. 

Go where you wish to grow: 

It's not complicated. It's a principle that began for me with exercise. Our brains create safety in ever decreasing ranges or ever increasing ranges based on the frequency we visit them. 

Want to be able to touch your toes? Reach towards your toes daily. It expands to everything. Want to drink less alcohol, start saying it often. Want to present better, start presenting more often. 

The reverse is true too, in mind and body. Cultivate the skill of turning from what you don't want by placing your attention on what you do want. 

Control your environment: 

The nervous system requires priming but the brain does too. Available distractions don't make a environment conducive to productivity. 

Your clothes, your phone, your computer, the things around you, they help or hinder the way you want to perform in that environment. 

That could mean relaxed, focused, confidence, calm of dozens of other possibilities . Know how you want to feel, then build your environment around it. The concept of lucky pants runs deep in all of us. When we use it we win. 

The habits all build from here. Practises serve principles. Principles create certainty, certainty creates action. Action creates habits. Habits create results. 

Ed Ley

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