Recovery ahead of the start of 2020, like any New Year, is both powerful and smart. Ahead of 2020 recovery might be all the more essential.
Why? because it’s “2020,” and like words, numbers mean things and 2020 is synonymous with clear vision.
Chances are you’ve been subtly looking ahead to 2020 and really pushing it here in the 4th quarter to enter the coming year strong. Maybe you’ve been planning on 2020 as being the culmination of and a new beginning for your many years of work, as I have; and you’re planning on this new year in a new decade, being your best year ever.
The question is, are you strong, personally speaking, meaning your physical body?
With two weeks left of the year and life busier than ever before, especially if you are a working parent AND an entrepreneur, executive or business professional… you may be crushing it; but remember, the “crush” of exertion and overexertion is always talking it’s a toll on your body unless you recover from it.
When you are stimulated in the momentum of the year-end, you may feel super energetic (stimulated), but underneath be crumbling under the pressure; only to feel your true condition at the start of the year. Nothing crushes intentions and new plans and strategies for people at every level of the socioeconomic scale than starting the year steeped in energy debt.
Matter of fact, that was always the reason most new years plans are at the very least challenged.
A short story.
When I started my career, I began in the gym business. I owned a hardcore bodybuilding gym (I was 19 years old) that opened at 4:30 in the AM and closed at midnight; accommodating, to say the least. I then went on to start a chain of health clubs, focused on fitness, that was much bigger, with still early and late hours but slightly less accommodating–5 am-10 pm.
I was energized because I was excited by the start of my first scalable business. It was 1989–. I kept this pace up for nearly 3 years, but then sold the business, after which I felt like I was having a mid-life crisis at 21! Energized turned to sheer exhaustion the minute I let off on the gas pedal. Then I realized how tired I really was.
The one thing I remember above all else from that time period is that while I was fit, I was tired virtually all the time. Why? In retrospect, I had no understanding of circadian rhythms at that time, I was overexerting throughout the day, was in the dark during the day and in the light during the night and I wasn’t getting much sleep… and that was just for starters. My lifestyle was a long way away from being grounded in the fundamentals of performance living.
Yet, I was young, and recovery was seemingly faster because I simply had less on my plate than I do now. Keep in mind this was before the information revolution, we weren’t yet on computers all day processing information, and the pace of life was at least a little slower. But all of that further reinforces my point.
If I had far less demand, was younger (almost 30 years younger), had a faster recovery and a slower pace of life, etc, why was I still so tired all the time? It’s all relative, but the fundamentals of performance living were just as important then as they are now; and back then, I was practicing them (as everyone is) but at such a low level, and not consciously or deliberately such that I simply wasn’t getting the benefit(s).
Fast forward 30 years later and today, with a 2-year-old and, a 13-year-old, aging parents who need care, a household to manage, and a business to run which is both content-based and service-based requiring huge amounts of energy; my practice of the fundamentals is at a much high level, and clearly I have far more energy.
Why? That’s why!
It’s because I get enough sleep, live aligned with the fundamentals (some of which I’ve listed above) and I go to a sort of recovery “gym” (Regenus Center) as a priority before or after the gym or simply during the day. Everything in my day from working out to work relies on exceptional levels of energy today and if recovery is not my priority nothing else in my days goes as well.
So as we enter 2020, consider that recovery is your high priority at year-end, outside of closing out the year with a bang. Also, there is a new type of facility that you want to keep an eye out for. It’s dedicated to recovery. No, not from drugs or alcohol, but from depleted energy, and the impact of stress from life, business, sports or creative pursuits. And if you don’t increase your energy, again and again, you might actually find yourself needing drugs and alcohol as you suffer from and with exhaustion and fatigue…
Even if you never made it to your workout end of the year, but just walked, did some body-exercises throughout the day, took the stairs and the all too cliche–parked farther away in the parking lots, walked more, and say stood at your desk… , at least over the coming weeks; and, you increased your recovery more than usual… when combined with the performance lifestyle you will soon learn–you’ll soon be crushing it, without getting crushed by excess stress and fatigue and I assure you 2020 is going to be your year.
So ask yourself, do you want more energy at the end of the year and at the start of the new year, so you will literally be stronger than ever? If so, then don’t over-exercise a fatigued body with all kinds of exceptional year-end demands on you; ratchet up the recovery.
And in the New Year, add daily recovery into your life to supplement your sleep, and prepare for your work and workouts… regularly and systematically as part of your performance lifestyle; That my friends, you can take to the bank and chalk up some seriously better quality of life.
~ JAM
