On Saturday, September 17th, 2022.
Matt Espeut is a health and lifestyle contributor.
Have you ever noticed that when you scroll social media, people mostly put the fun and exciting things going on in their lives on display for everyone to see?
If you live in reality, you are going to hit some hills and valleys in life.
There is a difference between being in a rut and being in a grave.
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Let me tell you what’s going on.
When you get stuck in a rut, valley, or slump, you have two options: figure out a way to pull yourself out quickly, or keep digging until it becomes a grave and you never recover, or a long time to recover.
I feel like I’m in a rut right now.
My finances went down, my fitness went down, and the business went down over the summer.
I can either dig myself out of the hole or dig the hole deeper.
I want to tell you what I am talking about.
Financials are the first thing to start with.
My debt increased due to a couple of things.
It didn’t pan out as expected when I hired a sales organization to do my sales I paid a lot of money to hire this sales team, which is less than I could have done myself, so I have a hole in my pocket.
I have continued to invest in training and self- development for myself and my team as one of the reasons for the dip. I pay to fly them all over the country, cover hotel allowances, and pay their salaries while they are away. There has been a lot going on recently.
The summer months are slow for new people to start working out. We were busy but not as busy as our prime months of June and September. December is a bit slower.
My fitness went backwards after training for The Spartan Death Race. I was training 4x a day during the last three weeks of preparation and my nutrition was on point. I felt like a weapon and I was eating like a champion. I gained 5 lbs of muscle and was fat at 10%.
I had a torn labral in my right shoulder and a torn left knee before the race. After suffering for 35 hours straight with 120 lbs on my back, the injuries worsened, so I was shot up with cortisone before the race. There’s a big surprise there.
The intensity of my training did not return to previous levels. I hold back and take time to recover from my mental stress. It showed up on my last body Scan when I couldn’t sprint, lift, or push myself to normal levels. I increased my body fat count by a few percentage points.
I feel like my morning anxiety is coming back to the surface. When I am in a valley, this happens often. There are many reasons why we feel anxious. The fear of bad things happening to us is one of the things that scares us.
We are playing tricks on ourselves. I lay in bed and think of all the bad things that could happen. I don’t know what to do if I lose all my money. If my injuries get so bad I can’t work out. If a lot of people quit on me, what would happen? I don’t know what to do if these things occur.
You little bitch, get up and do something.
Those are the things I say to myself. I can either let it dig the grave deeper or I can take the necessary steps to get out of it.
If you are currently experiencing a slump, I will show you how to dig yourself out.
Training should start getting harder. I can push a bit harder now that my shoulder and knee are feeling better. We have a 5k coming up in October and I want to train for it. By increasing your workouts, you can do the same thing. You should add an extra day if you work out. Increase the distance if you enjoy running. Every workout is a victory if we work out. You start to feel better when you stack the wins.
I am on the phone to sell things. I need to do it for a while. We were going to divide and conquer the sales roles to bring us back to the top and make up for the lost revenue.
Staying on top of my nutrition is a must. During my birthday week, I received a box of cookies, a box of cake bites, and a few beers, but I fell off because I was away. After a week, I feel like I am back to normal.
It’s important to get to bed on time. Even though I can’t stay awake until the alarm goes off, I make sure I get 8 hours of sleep. This is not negotiable, no matter what emotions are in my head. It’s important to rest. Lying and resting is good even if you aren’t sleeping.
Start of workday, end of workday, and end of night routine should be locked down. I wake up to 32 ounces of water. I schedule some blocks of time to work out and review my calendar. It allows me to be more productive and keep me from distraction. At the end of the day, I take a break with an hour or so of tv and go to sleep. There is no exception.
We will always encounter losing seasons in life. The secret to getting up fast is when we are knocked down.
I guarantee that things would get worse if I wallowed about finances, stayed in bed until 10 am, and complained about my situation to everyone. I would dig my grave to depths that would be hard to overcome in a timely fashion.
The man on the white horse isn’t going to help us solve our own problems. The first thing to do is to recognize that you are in a slump and begin digging yourself out.
Life isn’t always going to be sunny.
You will get knocked down many times. You are normal and have normal problems, so put on your gloves and fight for a victory. It is your fight and only you can fight it. Have a great day as I am off to make sales.
It’s important to you that you’re committed to your success.
There is a coach named Matt.