Leading With Emotional Courage

CHAPTER 48THE LIMITLESS POSSIBILITY OF NOW: A QUESTION THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

For years I've exercised every day – doing weights, cardio, yoga – but despite my continuous effort, I haven't seen much change.

Until a short while ago.

Recently, my body has changed. My muscles are stronger, more defined, and I've lost five pounds along with a visible layer of fat. So what did I do differently?

Let's start with what I didn't do: Spend more time exercising. In fact, I've spent less. What I did change is how I use the time I spend working out.

Instead of doing the same old workout, day after day, I'm mixing it up with new routines. I'm focusing my effort more wisely – confusing my muscles with different exercises, adding balance challenges, power moves, and intervals.

The rapid results I achieved by changing my exercise routine made something very clear to me: We habitually squander time and effort on behaviors that do little to move us toward the outcomes we're seeking. Spending an hour on a treadmill watching TV had no visible impact on my fitness. But when I used that hour differently, I saw improvement.

It's not that we're lazy. We put effort into what we do. I ran on the treadmill every day. But, like my daily run, our efforts often don't translate into optimum results.

The basic principle is simple: We're already spending a certain amount of time doing things—in meetings, managing businesses, writing e-mails, making decisions. If we could just make a higher impact during ...