It started as an approach to squeezing some exercise into my day.  I had just finished a role that really didn’t leave much space or energy for activity and I missed the thinking time.  My simplistic plan was to do two things everyday that involved movement.  Sometimes a ride and a swim, other days a visit to the gym and surfing with the kids.  It didn’t really matter, just two things.

Going from weekend warrior to getting out twice a day was a stretch and it took some time to get used to the routine and the effort.  Thankfully I was in no rush.  I had no preconceived ideas about mileage, pace or weight.  The freedom to choose two activities everyday creates its own problems.  I started to look at the weather as a guide.  If it was horrible outside, I would go to the pool and maybe the gym later.  Is the surf was great I would visit the beach for some time in the water followed by a ride.

Fitting all of this in around family and work commitments was not all that difficult.  I did a lot of things very early in the morning and again at lunch.  I also tried to pick activities that my kids liked to do.  Experience has taught me that  harmony between work, home and the pursuit of leisure is most important in these endeavors.

After three months things started to click.  I felt better during my workouts and I was often one of the few awake when the slide numbers hit the tripple digits at those work presentations.  If that’s not the definition of endurance…

As I adjusted to the physicality of my experiment and the time management challenges I added a few more elements to my two-a-day list.  I decided I would start with some things at home.  Two things everyday for the people that matter most.  I stretched that same approach to my friends as well.  Doing things for friends and family was easy and a lot of fun.  Next I thought about my professional life and connecting with two people that I didn’t know very well.  This was challenging and the first few attempts didn’t work very well.  I needed to refine my value proposition a little more.

There has to be a reason to connect at work or it comes across as something between desperation and stalking.  This was pretty easy to fix.  I also started acknowledging what I thought was great work.  Again, just twice a day.  When I started looking, it was easy to see the good things happening around me.  Even now I kick myself for not seeing some of the great outcomes that were happening everyday.  I was so caught up in what mattered most to me that I missed everything else.  A regret for sure.

At work, connecting with two new people each day and acknowledging the great work of another two people each day changed my approach to things.  I was more informed and certainly more connected.  Away from the office, I worked on doing those two things for my family and those two things for my friends everyday.  Of course you can’t cover everyone everyday, but that didn’t matter.  Do what you can with what you have.

I still do my two workouts a day and I still struggle to be average at any of them.  I am not really okay with that, but will learn to live with it.  The real a-ha moment has been the changes in how I think about my relationships at home, with friends and at work.  I am not sure where it will end, but I have a few things I want to add to my list of two things I do everyday.

Looking for the positives and recognizing achievement seems to be slightly out of fashion.  I was never very good with fashion so it works well for me…

SDG