When I Have Time

One of the most powerful excuses to keep me away from the gym is the so-called lack of time. It’s an excuse that affects every other area of life, if I let it. And I bet I’m not the only one.

“I don’t have time, this will have to wait until tomorrow.”

“I was going to get to it, but…”

“If only there were more hours in the day, I could…”

The promise of tomorrow always calls to us, assuring us that somehow there will be more hours than the insufficient 24 we were supplied with today. There have been several days where the gym bag sits in the car, or the calorie counter gets ignored.

Think of the resolutions people make to get fit after the New Year, or to be in shape for the summer at the beach. Attempts at dieting can end up the same way. “I blew it, I’ll start tomorrow.”

There are also all the distractions. We may start out meaning well, but Facebook and video games and the newest Game of Thrones episode vie for our attention. That great match-up is going on, and your favorite team is playing.

Or we allow the myriad obstacles to become a justification for “tomorrow.” Today I fully intended to go to the gym after work, for the first time since my surgery. I got ready for the day and got my gym clothes together, then went to get my shoes. A month in a cast and a few weeks in a walker means I haven’t needed my right shoe for quite some time. We planned for this, and put the right shoe on the top shelf of the closet by the front door so that it wouldn’t disappear like a sock in the dryer.

Which it did.

I got home after work, we had dinner, and we started getting the kids to bed. I found the missing shoe, and figured, “Oh well, try again tomorrow.” Then I saw our little stepper machine. It’s not much but it can at least get me to break a sweat. I hopped on and knocked out an hour of slowly-increasing cardio.

It’s similar to writing. Keeping up with a daily A-Z entry on two blogs has been difficult only because I have not forced myself to make the time. Other writing projects that I fully intend to complete are sitting untouched because I have not carved out the few minutes here and an hour there to put words on paper. I’ve been trying to catch up, but it’s tempting to fall for “tomorrow” when I’m tired. It’s 2 AM as I type this, because I’m choosing to ignore that excuse.

We make time for our priorities.

Tomorrow I have a normal work day, then I rush off to catch most of a simulator training event, and then I need to hit the gym. I’ll have homework from my Chinese class in the evening, but I’ll need to spend time with my family too. Thursday is a full day of work followed by study time for professional education, with church band practice for most of the evening, and homework somewhere in there. Friday will be a full day of work until my brother and sister-in-law arrive to visit for the weekend, something we’re extremely excited about. Friday night through Sunday afternoon are all pretty full, and then there’s the weekend homework.

I’m sure my schedule is not really any more complicated or demanding than so many others. But other people are out there working two jobs and still writing and publishing their novels. Other people are completing college courses and keeping up with demanding work while still knocking out an intense workout regimen.

Probably because when tomorrow whispers, they don’t listen.

We get 24 hours today, to do with generally as we please. When those are gone, we get a new today with another 24 hours. We’ll never get a tomorrow, only more todays. What can we accomplish with this ‘today’ we’ve been given?