Would You Rather?

Would you rather get donkey kicked in the balls by an actual donkey or receive a swift kick to the nuts from Chuck Norris?

(Ladies if there's a female version of this, slot that above.)

Both options are terrible. However, you might invariably land on this question: Which one of those is the lesser of two evils?

That question also applies to your time budget/schedule.

You might look at your schedule and realize that you can either workout early in the morning before the actual start of your day or after work.

This is where you stop asking yourself what you'd like to do and start thinking about what you're likely to do.

I've personally talked myself into a lot of my own brilliant ideas only to swiftly abandon them the day after.

This is where people initially fail. They swear an oath to themselves to consistently do something they have absolutely zero history of doing.

Do not fall into this trap. If you've never gotten up early to workout before - it's not likely you're going to miraculously start now. For most people this would only happen if they were hit in the face by a meteor that magically dosed them with a highly potent cocktail of amphetamines.

The options here are either A: Somehow find a source of motivation for the ages. Or, B: slowly work your way up to the point you want to be at.

Option B is far more likely to work.

In any case what I want you to do is:

1. Pick a time that you're likely to workout. Try that time X period of time.
2. For every time you attempt to workout whether you succeed or not, I want you to jot down all of the reasons why it did or didn't work out for you.
3. Are these reasons or excuses?
4. If it didn't work out, what would you do differently next time?
5. If you switch time slots are those reasons still likely to be true?
6. If you're finding that you keep falling off the wagon at that time, move on to the next likely time slot.
7. Repeat the process. See if the new time slot sticks.
8. Keep experimenting with this but set a limit for how long you're going to experiment.
9. At the end of all of this you should have a compiled list of things that worked, things that didn't work, and an actual time that you know is your best bet for working out.

Once you know what that time is, stick to it. It is no longer a nebulous idea. It is the result of experimentation and tracking. It's been validated. That is THE time slot that you workout it. View it as being immutable. Unless the apocalypse is in progress, you're rolling up to the gym at that time without fail.