“I’m so tired.” I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this during my 14-year career as a personal trainer. On occasion, this is the first thing people say before they say hello. I get it. We all need sleep and rest. However, I will explain why this mindset needs to change if you want results.
First, is to be in charge of your schedule. Juggling between work and life, it seems like we have no time for ourselves. Do you feel like you are always in a hurry? Our days are based on routine: wake up, eat, go to work, eat lunch, take care of kid/pet/ourselves, eat dinner, and sleep. Repeat. Sounds boring when I put it like that, huh? Not much changes from day-to-day besides social events (birthday party, events, etc.). Planning ahead could be waking up early, making meals, etc. Once you get in the habit of doing this consistently, you will realize you have more time than you think. There are 24 hours in a day, mostly gone through work and sleep. Ask yourself, how are you spending the rest of the time?
Another is perception. Is being tired relative? Recall that moment when you didn’t sleep to take care of your loved one. Did you make that same excuse? No, right? I remember when my son was born, he was sent to NICU because he had complications in his lung and couldn’t breathe so he had to be connected to tubes. To add to that, my wife lost so much blood that she had to get a blood transfusion. We were at the hospital for 6 days and let’s just say I didn’t sleep much. Was I tired? Of course! But I didn’t have time to think about myself. The last thing I cared about was how tired I was. How would my wife or son feel if I complained about how tired I was when they could barely breathe or walk? Get where am I going with this? The “I’m tired” excuse is a slippery slope. The longer you use this as your excuse, that is when you start gaining weight.
Taking the famous quote from Kobe Bryant, “You know, if you do the work, you work hard enough, dreams come true. Those times when you get up early and you work hard. Those times when you stay up late and you work hard. Those times when you don’t feel like working, you’re too tired, you don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream.”
I will always remember this quote from Kobe. In my opinion, his strongest attribute wasn’t his freakish athleticism, it was his willingness to be the best. He did this through practicing his craft. Dribbling, footwork, shooting, working out, studying film. Simply, he outworked everyone around him. If someone showed up at 5 AM to the gym, he would show up at 4 AM. He would go workout after he put his kids to sleep. He didn’t let being tired come between what we wanted to achieve, which was to be the best basketball player. So if you really want to lose that weight or look like The Rock, you better put in the work and not let being tired come in between.
-Kei