Even though it’s the season of giving it’s very important to think about yourself as well.  I don’t mean in a selfish type of way, but understanding that you still have to take care of yourself during the hectic times can be a life saver. 

Let’s not beat around the bush here, it takes plenty of physical and mental energy to run around sardine packed malls and fitting a million things into your day.  Your energy is constantly drained and that’s no fun at all.

If you find yourself doing too many things for other people without actually taking some of that time to do the things you want to do then here’s two simple options to try.

Option 1:  Learn to say no.  Do you constantly say yes to everything, even though you know it’s going to be a pain in the ass?  Don’t try to be a hero and work yourself to the bone; it’s okay to say no sometimes.  Once you quit saying yes to everybody you’ll find that you would have more time for yourself.

Option 2:  No Interruptions.  Find a quiet spot where you wont be interrupted by anyone.  Relax, read a book or enjoy a cup of tea.  The goal here is to have 30 minutes by yourself with no interruptions (turn off that cell phone/blackberry!) if you can do more then, fantastic!  But the point is to be by yourself doing something for you.  Doing chores and grocery shopping doesn’t count.

You might feel guilty taking time for yourself, but if you don’t take small opportunities to unwind and recover how are you supposed to help other people?  It’s not a crime doing something for YOU.

On Tuesday I was training one of my hard working clients (well actually they’re pretty much all hard working).  She was on her last set of push-ups and before she got down to do them she said her arms we’re getting pretty tired.

I quickly looked at her and said, “I know how you feel!”

We both kind of laughed it off and after her push-ups were done she sad I should implement the 3-F’s.

I was like, “3 –F’s!?  I’ve never heard that before.”

So she explained to me it was a great formula that turned something negative into something positive.

After she told me the formula, I thought it was the best thing…ever!

The three F’s are made up of three words in this order.

Feel – Felt – Found

Here’s an example my client gave to me to share with you…of course there’s some humor in it and don’t really make her do 85 lunges…but maybe I should!  HAHA!

So in this case this would be me talking to Laurie (client):

“Laurie I understand how you feel when you tell me you hate lunges. I’ve often felt that way myself however, I’ve found that if I think about how great my legs will look in a couple weeks, I can somehow find the energy to do 85 more lunges.”

Powerful stuff huh?

But did you get the idea from the example?

This is a great way to help motivate other people around you or even apply it to yourself during your workouts and give your self a bit of internal motivation.

I just can’t get over this awesome formula and I’m just amazed as to how this tool turns your negative thoughts into a positive one almost immediately.  It also gets you thinking about the benefits you’ll receive once you complete the task.  Oh and if you missed it, with the example above the benefit is having great looking legs.

Go ahead and test it out today.

**Special Thanks to Laurie Sheff.** 

Thank you so much for sharing this with me.

If you’ve been keeping up with American Idol, then you must know the 17-year old David Archuleta.  If not, in a nut shell he’s this kid in American Idol who honestly has some amazing vocals and gives all the other contestants a run for their money.

So anyways he faces off with another amazing contestant named David Cook.  Last night the host asks both of them to say a few words to each other.  When it was David Cooks turn to say something about David Archuleta (17 year old) he says “…You’ve just been one of the most consistently nice people…”

When I heard that it made me think.  I tell my subscribers and clients to be consistent with their workouts, but with nothing else.  

Just imagine if you were positively consistent with everything else you did in your life, just as you are with your workouts.  The amount of self discipline that you’d acquire would be phenomenal.

Consistency is not only the key to being in great shape, but if applied properly and with good intent you can make new friends or get better at a hobby.  Heck it doesn’t really matter what you want to accomplish if you’re consistently putting in the effort to achieve your goal, you’ll be able to achieve it easily.