Workouts, pain, growth and Entrepreneurship

Posted by Michael Cage on Wednesday, March 15, 2006

For over a year, I spent my Tuesdays and Fridays sweating/grunting/bleeding/puking at Maximum Bob Whelan's gym in Chinatown, Washington D.C. Calling it a gym might be a stretch. It was more a cave-like dwelling devoted to the voluntary infliction of pain and testing of limits. I loved everything about it.

A couple of months in, I wasn't making the progress I wanted.

Bob isn't cheap, I had to drive 45-minutes each way and I didn't want to waste the pain without making progress. So I started tracking. What I ate, when I ate, when I went to sleep, how my energy levels were throughout the day. Stuff like that.

My big "breakthrough" came when I discovered my energy, performance and recovery on workout days was mostly impacted by ... what and when I ate as my last meal the day before. This little bit of information in hand, it only took a couple of weeks to adjust my diet and schedule to have perform at my best. It was an easy and painless change made even better because I could see results the next day in my log. Cool.

Anyway, this is NOT a post about how to work out better or get the most out of a personal trainer.

It's about something all good coaches know and great performers come to understand.

What gets measured, gets improved.

You see, if I wasn't measuring and tracking my diet/energy/performance ... I never would have realized what the key to improving my performance would be. But the moment I started tracking to the moment I "got it" ... was a matter of a few short days. After months of frustration, something clicked when it was "out there" on paper. Truth is like that sometimes, easy to see when you are willing to really look.

Something similar happens in business.

When the things you want improved exist "out there" in the daily hustle and bustle, it's easy to let a day slip without doing something about them. Then another day. Then a week. Pretty soon you find yourself looking back wondering what that thing you wanted to do something about was.

We humans have an amazing ability to tell ourselves stories about why we aren't progressing the way we'd like. It's the boss/parent/spouse/kid/landlord/employee and on. Fact is, when we want to believe the responsibility for less than stellar results rests somewhere else, our minds will latch onto damn near any explanation no matter how silly. Tracking what's happening ... on paper ... brings a bright light into that shady corner of the mind.

Start simple.

How many clients do you have today?
How many do you want to have 30 days from now?
Now track what you do ... every day ... to get it.

I bet you'll enjoy the results...

Tags: dc, effectiveness, marketing, measurement 3 Comments & Trackbacks (add your own)

I’ve been working out hardcore for about 7 years, ever since I got into college, and honestly, I’ve never recorded or monitored my workouts. And I think this is the same scenario a lot of entrepreneurs go through. They’ve been business with their business for so long that they start to get too far into the forest to see the tress and start thinking they know it all, and they don’t need to evaluate or change.

The thing is, in the gym I’ve noticed I’ve been slipping lately, because I’m getting content. I’m not trying to push myself everyday, and I’m not trying to best my previous week’s efforts. As a result, I’m getting a little bit of a belly.

In our business, things are flattening out as well, but luckily we’ve constantly revitalizing our methods and are able to continually innovate—guess it’s time I start tracking my progress at the gym as well

Andrew Wise on Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Michael the way you describe is really impressive to me, The way you handle the situation at workout and really a symbol of good marketing personal. Awesome, i appreciate this useful sharing.

PMI-001 on Sunday, September 21, 2008

I’m really impressed with your article, such great information you mentioned here, thanks for your sharing and waiting to see your future posts.

biggest loser on Wednesday, October 01, 2008

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