When it comes to your lifestyle, anything you do “now” you likely do because it makes you feel good now (for the most part). That’s the gift vs. chore.
So when you say I’m going to eat a particular food, exercise, take a nap, think a specific thought, etc., you do so because it will make you feel good now or soon after that.
A chore is when you do something that may make you feel better later, like “get healthy;” it’s vague, nebulous, not time-based, or even close to being immediate. The payoff is so far down the road; it’s hard to stay motivated.
That’s why performance and lifestyle is an immediate, imminently better context to put in practice what you want and need to do because it’s about functioning and often feeling better now.
See Instagram Gift Vs. Chore and this Daily Reminder.
There are nuances to what is a gift vs. chore.
For example, my AM routine is most certainly a gift.
In that context, there is no way I would do everything I do nearly every morning (not always) if there were no immediate benefits. There are many long-term benefits, but my short-term motivation could wane dramatically if I focus only on the long-term benefits.
When I first started my lifestyle coaching business, I was so focused on the future of what I was developing that I forgot to pay attention to the near terms rewards of making the most of each inch of progress towards my big goal—at one point, focusing on the long game only, and being vaguely “successful” really (and negatively) affected my company and me.
See Optimize’s take on Chore Vs. Gift.
And that brings up the point of living a performance lifestyle, which is entirely a gift vs. chore approach to life.
Every aspect of developing a balanced and healthy performance lifestyle is built on one simple fact:
Your lifestyle, everything from meditating to sleeping, eating, exercising and thinking, and navigating stress from the outside world in the process of achieving your goals, is a set of skills.
Your lifestyle comprises several skills that you use to manage your energy, including but not limited to the food you eat and your activity levels, how you think, etc.
You optimize your lifestyle to maintain the solid mental and physical capacities you need to succeed (achieve your life—family, career/business, sporting or creative —goals) and sustain the quality of life.
How you look and feel are the side benefits of optimal living.
And that is all a gift, not a chore. It only becomes a chore if you don’t have that context and have no compelling reason to do what you need to do now.
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As “client zero,” JAM was desperate to develop “a practice of all essential lifestyle practices” to develop a better way to live and work. And in that process, assembled the principle, practices, and ultimately the 5 lifestyle strategies all healthy, high achieving people know and live by to thrive, so people like him could fulfill their God-inspired dreams with their health and wellbeing intact!
JAM is a leading Performance Lifestyle Coach and authority on living the High–Performance Lifestyle® with an online training community & academy that teaches people how to manage their energy like the pros.
JAM helps you get free of the hidden lifestyle challenges that distract and hold you back from living your full potential as you optimize the way you live for energy, health, and high performance. Performance Lifestyle Inc. is currently based in Livingston, NJ, where he and his team run RegenUS Center to help you restore your life force energy. For a complimentary strategy session with JAM or a Member of the Lifestyle Coach team, click here.
Learn how to live a balanced, and healthy, high-performance lifestyle you can call your own.
