Why I Started Exercising First Every Day

For five years, I wrote a blog post every morning at 5:00 AM. On the weekends I might have slept in until 7:00 AM, but the first thing I did upon waking was grabbing a cup of coffee, sitting down at my desk, and start writing the daily blog.

Waking up at 5:00 AM to write was what allowed me to be consistent. It allowed me to invest time in writing and developing my social presence without having to give up anything else. Well, almost anything else. I did have to give up the time I spent exercising.

A few months ago I decided that writing this blog was not my very highest priority. In fact, writing a blog post first each day was working against my highest priority. My highest value is freedom. And I need the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health to pursue that goal. So I decided to make a change.

Now, seven days a week, the first thing I do each day is drive to the small gym run by my personal trainer to lift weights and do bodyweight exercises. My personal trainer believes in a core routine of deadlifts, clean and press, squats, and push and pull motions. He also loves intense bodyweight exercises, like push ups and pull-ups (which exposes your exceedingly limited upper body strength better than any other exercise).

I don’t do physical labor in any of my work roles (unless you consider typing physical labor). I am what Peter Drucker described as a “knowledge worker.” But my body is the vessel in which my brain and mind live, and it is critical that I keep that environment in impeccably good health.

Your physical health is the foundation of every other result you produce. By putting my health and fitness first, I ensure that it gets done before the rest of my work day crowds out the time and the energy I need. You make that expended energy you are using energy, but you are creating energy.

Whatever your priorities are, you are going to achieve them faster and more certainly if you take care of your health first. This is why I started exercising first every morning.