Special thanks to Mandy Starling for this great guest post!
“Don’t pee your pants. Don’t pee your pants!” Last December, I was 15 minutes into a 20 minute acupuncture session repeating this phrase desperately and envisioning standing up half naked, gingerly but frantically taking the needles out of my back, neck, and hands, throwing my shirt back on, and running out of the doctor’s office and down the hall to the bathroom.
The treatment had stimulated my kidneys and liver, and after all the water I drank that morning, my bladder quickly woke up and shouted hello! The doctor was in another room and I didn’t think he would hear me if I called out asking to be set free before the timer was up, so I counted seconds, praying they would pass quickly… but it took FOREVER. Longest 5 minutes of my life.
Time has often felt like my enemy. I’ve done a 2-hour workout that felt like 4. I’ve sacrificed sleep to get up at 4am on a Saturday to do a 4+ hour bike and then spend time with family, even though I was exhausted. I’ve agonized over having enough time to train, cook healthy meals, work my day job, and do self-care.
There is a clear winner when it comes to the #1 roadblock to accomplishing triathlon and fitness goals: a lack of time. There is a better way! I’ll share some things I’ve learned that helped me own time rather than letting time own me… going beyond weekend meal-prep.
Idea #1: Newtonian time vs. Einstein Time
When I focus on only having 20 minutes to get some kind of workout in, 30 minutes to shower/dress/put makeup on, and 10 minutes to eat before I have to head to work, I’m operating in Newtonian Time. It’s linear and is the same for everyone… and I have no control over it.
Einstein proposed a different theory though - that we create time from within us. There are all kinds of variables around us that can collapse or expand time as we need it to.
After I learned about this, I tested these theories when I again found myself at the chiropractor needing to pee, this time only 5 minutes into a 20 minute traction session. I started repeating in my mind that I had all the time needed to complete my treatment and go to the bathroom without accident. I told myself the 15 minutes would pass by quickly, that I’d be done before I knew it. And guess what? It worked!
Here are some things I’ve done to successfully change how time works for me (rather than me working for time).
I shifted my thoughts about time from a negative, victim frame, to a positive, empowered frame. When I think, “I don’t have time to get everything done today”, I instead start repeating, “I have exactly enough time to do all I want to do today.”
I became present in the moment, noticing what I could see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, and did square breathing (breathe in for 4 counts, hold 4 counts, breathe out for 4 counts, and hold 4 counts, repeated as much as needed). This enabled me to shift my emotions from overwhelm, stress, or anxiety to gratitude, power, and peace.
I tried both of these ideas once when driving to an appointment in heavy traffic. I thought I’d be about 5 minutes late and started tensing and feeling stressed. Instead, I started breathing and repeating I had more than enough time to get to my appointment. I relaxed, felt more at peace, and arrived 2 minutes early (without speeding or running any red lights!).
Idea #2: Parkinson’s Law - “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion”
Research shows that when we limit the amount of time we have to complete something, not only do we go faster, we do it better. I noticed at work that if I told committee members they had until our meeting next week to report back on their action item, many times they either forgot, or waited until the last minute and then brought back poor results, stalling our group’s progress.
When I asked them to complete an action item by EOB that day or the next, they came back with great results and our group’s momentum kept going strong.
How I’ve applied this law to exercise:
Right now, I’m focusing on staying in a happy, peaceful state during training and future races. I break this down into daily goals and focus only on today’s goal.
I also keep in mind Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states there is an optimal level of arousal that improves our task performance. If I put too much stress on myself, I feel overwhelmed while too little squashes my motivation - both of which lead to not completing my goal in the preferred time.
I started blocking out 1-hour chunks on my calendar to work on specific things. When I do this, I’m more likely to complete the task with a high level of quality.
David Goggins and Timothy Ferris talk about cutting out the fluff. I often found myself avoiding a long workout by doing chores, checking social media, or staying up later than I’d planned because I just had to watch one more episode of whatever show looked remotely okay.
The previous suggestion of blocking out hours also helped me overcome this habit of wasting time (and flipped it into something more positive - I own time!).
Idea #3: Visualization
Last year, I visualized the Memphis 70.3 race over and over… even visiting it a few months before the race so I could really get it in my head. But several things took training time away from me, including illness, injury, my family, and job and I didn’t get the hours in I thought I needed to reach my goals. On race day, in the pouring rain, that 56 mile bike drug on. I struggled to enjoy being in the south and seeing all the green around me (which I normally get totally giddy over).
I hit my goal to have the fastest half marathon in a 70.3 ever, but it was not a fun experience. And then I got super sick after the race and struggled to get back into regular training for 5 months. I decided it was time to level up my visualization practices so I could feel successful after a race no matter how much time I had to train or how the race went. Here are some techniques that are helping me.
My visualizations now include how I will feel during my workout or race. Since gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions, I usually focus on that one… especially when I visualize what I will do and how I’ll feel when things don’t go as planned.
I usually do my visualizations before falling asleep and as soon as I wake up… and if it’s a really big one I want to see happen, I set an alarm on my phone to do a quick visualization a couple of times during the day too.
For 4 months after Memphis, I got stuck in a cycle of getting sick or injured every time I started feeling better and getting in a regular exercise routine again. One day, I visualized using huge wire cutters and broke the chain keeping me in this cycle.
Then I smoothed and lengthened that chain into an upward gently rolling wave, indicating an upward trend from that day forward in my health and fitness levels. It’s working! I did 15 snowboarding runs yesterday - almost 16 miles - and set some new speed records!
Tapping is a method to interrupt the neuropathways deeply ingrained in my brain. There are several methods you can find with a Google search. When I’m sitting at a stop light, I’ll start tapping while saying both limiting beliefs and positive thoughts (even more effective if I visualize interrupting those pathways and creating new ones).
I don’t have time to run this afternoon (tap, tap, tap). I have all the time I need to run and cook dinner this afternoon (tap, tap, tap). I will feel happy and at peace all afternoon (tap, tap, tap).
Finally, after working with a couple of mentors over the past several months, I have two mantras I repeat to myself regularly that have made a HUGE difference. I’ve also written them on notecards and put them around the house - and in a back pocket or in my bra (words have energy and influence too!):
Everything always works out for me.
Everything is working for me.
Putting it all together
Here’s how I put all of these concepts together for training.
Before a workout, I intuitively ask myself what I need today to reach my goal, regardless of how much time I have.
Then I set the intention, with gratitude in my heart, that the workout will improve my health and fitness in preparation for reaching my goal.
During the workout, I visualize my muscles getting stronger, my lungs working more efficiently, and blood flowing freely through my heart and body.
After the workout, I thank my body for its hard work.
I’ve barely scratched the surface on all of these ideas. If you’d like to know more about mastering time, send an email to MandyStarCoaching@gmail.com. Remember, time comes from within you and you have all the time you need!
In another blog post soon, I’ll share some different ideas on what to do about recurring illness and injuries that keep you from training and racing.
Resources:
“The Big Leap” by Gay Hendricks. Specifically Chapter 6, Living in Einstein Time
“Becoming Supernatural” by Joe Dispenza
“Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins
“The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss
“The Relation of Strength and Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit Formation” by Robert M. Yerkes & John D. Dodson (1908)
“Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress” by John Murray (1958).
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