How values inform fitness

If you are finding value and enjoy my writing on sports, philosophy, and how to live the good life through a deeper understanding of both you can support me further by becoming a paid subscriber. That support ensures I can keep producing valuable content. Thank you. Let’s keep winning together!

---

Inventing my own fitness game

Yesterday I wrote about a powerful concept in sports, what the Italians call ‘inventing the game’ (if you missed it, read it HERE).

Today I want to bring you a specific example from my training this week so you can see how living by values and creating a values based fitness routine work to create your own game.

It’s a way to turn the drudgery and mechanization of fitness into a fun, and exciting way to express yourself creatively.

Turning fitness from a punishment or necessary ‘evil’ for bad behavior into a positive expression of self that sustains the best version of you.

Ruthless execution through values

The reason why values based fitness is such a vital frame for exercise is due to the powerful character building potential of sports to truly bring out your best virtues.

When you align you fitness to what matters most in your life, what you value more than anything else, it becomes a seamless part of your day to day.

It’s no longer something you do, but it becomes who you are.

Let me give you some specific examples from my own process.

First, here are the core values I live my life by:

Family / Escape into Nature / Artistic Passion / Service to Others / Faith

Now, let’s take a look at my Tuesday this week to see how fitness and values fit seamlessly together.

Tuesday:

We moved away from family supports so I have taken up a lot of the domestic duties since we relocated for my wife’s job. That means kid’s breakfast and camp drop off and pick up for me. It doesn’t leave me with a lot of time in between to work, train, and order the house.

On Tuesday, I had a gnawing feeling that I hadn’t been in nature enough, that I needed to get to Lake Michigan and jump in the water. I also knew I needed to run.

On top of that, I had client calls I needed to make and content to produce. So how was I going to make it all work?

First, I tied my run to the lake. I would drive to our beach, run, dip in the lake, and then pick my son up at camp, a 5 minute drive away. Good plan!

The client call went LONG, I serve my people well. So I had to kick into adapt mode when it came to my run.

I wanted to hit a 7-8 mile distance, but after taking care of some house cleaning after my call, and knowing I cannot be late to pick up my son, I checked down to a 4 mile run.

But I also need to express myself so I determined to run this one FAST. Fast running makes me feel alive and turns 30 minutes into a killer workout. So I burned my gas.

This gave me just enough time, 10 minutes, to walk down to the Lake, swim for a few minutes, dry off, then hurry back up to the car and drive over to camp.

All values hit. Workout executed flawlessly. Kids picked up. Dinner cooked. Happy Team.

This is what I mean by ‘inventing your own game’

I have a few non negotiables that gives me many options of how to fit them in, day to day, week to week.

Bonus, I’ve been doing this so long that these checkdown and adaptations are part of my overall training plan so I even got better by not going as long or having as much time as I originally assumed.

To me, this is why fitness flows easily for me. It’s just who I am at this point.

Finding your own game

Now it’s your turn to try out values based fitness and make your own game.

Just like the example above, it’s not about knowing all the steps, it’s about understanding a few core truths about what matters most to you and then seeing 1000 different ways you can bring it to life given the demands of your life.

So here are a few guardrails to put onto your fitness that will have you living out your deep values through your exercise.

1.You must become flexible instead of rigid, open hearted instead of stiff necked.

Too often people get stuck in the rigidity of fitness, seeing each individual session as a ‘can’t miss’ and then when life gets in the way, and you miss one, it topples the whole house of cards.

Rather, recognize that small efforts stack, and as long as you don’t put up a zero you are on the right path.

2.You must create non-negotiable requirements with yourself

Internal accountability matters a lot here. That’s why we tie the fitness to the deep values, as a way to increase intrinsic motivation, that internal fire to go hard for it’s own sake.

You can start with some loose weekly metrics such as:

• I run 2 times a week

• I lift on the weekend

• I adventure early one morning

With a loose frame, you have more options to find compliance to your non-negotiable metrics and you can better stick to them.

3.Fun Maxx

For real team, fun has to be a crucial component. If you can squeeze out fun while maneuvering through all of the obstacles in your way, you will become addicted to the game you just invented.

You’ll realize it’s a puzzle that you always get to solve, you just have to rearrange the board and see that the pieces fit together in a whole host of ways.

I love the challenge of seeing all the things I have to do in my day, and then finding the opportunity to exercise in a way that fills me up. I’m addicted to my own game because it’s fun, but in a way that’s also deeply meaningful.

These 3 guardrails will help you establish your own values based fitness routine.

If you aren’t sure where to start or how to do this, send me a message using the button below and let’s chat about what your life could be when you place your values at the center of your fitness.

Let’s keep winning together team!