I think it’s finally spring time in the Rockies; and that’s not just because the Colorado Rockies had their home opener last Friday.  Yesterday was a beautiful day.  I went for a bike ride.  I enjoyed having the opportunity to exercise outdoors

As a career success coach, I advise my clients to live a healthy lifestyle.  This means eating right and exercising.  You don’t have to become a tri-athlete; every little bit of exercise helps.

Dan Robey is a friend of mine.  He is the author of The Power of Positive Habits.  I am one of his subscribers.  Yesterday, I received a great e mail from Dan on brisk walking as a positive habit.  Dan is a generous guy and he always lets me repost his posts here. 

Check out what he has to say about the power of brisk walking…

Make “Brisk Walking” A Positive Habit

“Not running, not jogging, but walking is your most efficient exercise and the only one you can safely follow all the years of your life.”

- Executive Health Organization

Walking as a daily exercise habit can truly be a life-changing positive habit and is one of the most powerful habits for reaching your goal of a healthy trim and fit body. Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of studies that have proven the benefits of brisk walking.

Thousands upon thousands of people have improved their health and lost weight by the diligent habit of walking. If you think that walking does not provide the same benefits as other more vigorous exercises, think again.

A study published by the New England Journal Of Medicine showed that postmenopausal women who walked regularly lowered their risk for heart disease just as much as women who did more vigorous
exercise, such as playing sports or running.

This study suggests that walking is just as good for your heart as heavy exercise. I spoke with study author Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, Chief of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital,
Professor of Medicine, at Harvard Medical School.  She said, “The study provides compelling evidence that walking and vigorous exercise provide similar heart benefits, about a 30% to 40% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease with 30 minutes per day of either activity.”

I also asked her about the benefits of making brisk walking a positive habit, and she responded, “They could surely walk away from heart disease and several other chronic diseases. We have also found that brisk walking for at least 3 hours a week can lower the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer.

No pain, no gain, is an outdated notion; exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous or uncomfortable. It can be easy and enjoyable. Even though the study consisted solely of women, it is likely that men
would experience similar benefits from the positive habit of brisk walking.
 

Here are additional benefits you will receive from your habit of brisk walking:

Walking burns calories and helps you lose weight and burn excess body fat.

Walking can help to improve your posture.

Walking requires no special equipment or gyms.

Walking can help lower blood pressure and help prevent circulatory and heart disorders.

Brisk, aerobic walking will give you the benefits of other exercises, such as jogging and cycling, but without the risk of injuries.

Walking at night can help promote better sleep.

Dan makes some great points about the benefits of developing a positive habit of brisk walking.  Personally, I prefer to bicycle in the summer, and walk in the winter. 

A lot of the people who I coach say that they know they should exercise, but often can’t seem to “get around to it.”  I have come up with the answer this problem.  I have printed several thousand stickers that are round and say “TUIT” in big capital letters.  Whenever someone tells me that they know they should do something but can’t seem to get around to it, I give them one of these stickers.  It is a round TUIT.  I tell them that now they can never say that they can’t get a around to it anymore, because they have a round TUIT.  I have a round TUIT sticker on my computer.  I have another one on my bike.  They are constant reminders to me to keep up good work and exercise habits.

Would you like a round TUIT?  If so, please send me your snail mail address, and I’ll put up to five round TUITs in the mail to you – free of charge.  Use them for yourself, or give them to your friends who are procrastinators.  Just make sure that you get around to living a healthy lifestyle.  Brisk walking is a great way to start.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are outstanding performers.  Outstanding performers are lifelong learners; they manage their time and life well; and they live a healthy lifestyle.  My friend Dan Robey, author of The Power of Positive Habits says that brisk walking is one of the most healthy habits you can adopt.  I agree, almost everybody can walk.  The more you walk, the healthier you’ll be.  Dan points out that “No pain, no gain, is an outdated notion; exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous or uncomfortable. It can be easy and enjoyable.  So, like the Nike ads say, Just Do It!  Or as this career success coach says, “Get around to it.”

That’s my take on developing positive habits that will keep you healthy and on top of your game.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Earlier this week I did a post about clarity of purpose and direction.  I began it with a story about Jim Collins from the April 2010 issue of SUCCESS Magazine.  This post is also based on something I found in SUCCESS.

W. Clement Stone was the publisher of an earlier version of SUCCESS Magazine.  He became a millionaire selling insurance during the great depression.  Along with Napoleon Hill and Paul J. Meyer, he is one of the best known pioneers of the modern success industry.  He was known as Mr. Positive Mental Attitude. 

As a career success coach, I believe in the power of having a positive mental attitude.  That’s why I am such a big fan of the Optimist Creed.  If you want a copy of the Optimist Creed to frame and hang in your office, just go to http://budbilanich.com/optimist. 

However, positive attitude isn’t what caught my eye in the current issue of SUCCESS.  On page 88, the “Turning Your Knowledge into POWER column says…

Big Doors Swing on Little Hinges.  W. Clement Stone says you are what your habits make you, but you can choose to change.  Write down two habits you should keep doing and two habits you need to eliminate, then get started.

That is great common sense career success advice.

Here are two habits I will keep doing…

1. Writing and publishing a blog five days a week.  This helps me deepen my understanding of what it takes to become a career success.  As a career success coach, I need to have as deep an understanding of the subject as possible.
2.  Beginning every day with a prayer asking for help in beeing a loving husband, good friend, productive member of society, and a positive influence on other people’s lives.  If I do all of these things, I will be not only an effective career success coach, I will be a good person, one who is worthy of the trust others put in me.

Here are two habits I will eliminate…

1. Giving myself permission to eat poorly and slack off on exercise when I travel.  I need to be as physically fit as possible to be effective as a career success coach.
2. Procrastinating on attempting to do things in which I might fail.  This includes things like regular podcasting, commenting on others’ blogs and video blog creation.

I have stated these publically.  That’s the first step in maintaining positive habits and in ridding myself of negative, unproductive ones.  I’m asking you to hold me to these commitments.  And I will help you do the same.

I have created a forum to help us all stick to our positive habits and change our not so positive ones.  Just go to http://www.BudBilanich.com/positivehabits and register for the forum.  Once you’ve done so, you can post the positive habits you want to keep and the negative habits you want to eliminate.  We can use this forum to help each other build positive career success habits.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their career success.  One way of demonstrating personal responsibility for your career success is by publicly committing to building on your good habits and breaking your bad habits.  I am creating an on line habit mastermind group.  In this group, we will help one another build on positive habits and break negative ones.  If you want to participate, join my new positive habits forum.  Go to http://www.BudBilanich.com/positivehabits.  Share the two habits you want to reinforce and the two you need to break.  I’ve set up this forum so we can help one another.

That’s my take on the power of positive habits and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  By the way, my friend, Dan Robey has written a book called The Power of Positive Habits.  You can get it at www.thepowerofpositivehabits.com.  If you’re interested in building on your positive habits and breaking your negative ones, you need to read this book.  Tell Dan that I sent you.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Competence is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System.  I also discuss it in some detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Your Success GPS; and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  If you want to succeed you need to develop four basic, but important competencies: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) becoming a consistently high performer; 3) dynamic communication skills; and 4) becoming interpersonally competent. 

There are four key competencies that will help you become a career and life success:

• You have to be able to create positive personal impact.
• You have to be become an outstanding performer.
• You have to be a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presentations.
• You have to build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.

I have done a couple of blog posts recently in which I mentioned the importance of having an abundance mentality.  You can see them here and here.  Dan Robey is an abundant kind of guy.  I am a subscriber to his Power of Positive Habits ezine.  Yesterday, he had a great article in the importance of raising your heart rate to build your fitness.  Fitness is key to becoming an outstanding performer.  You can perform at a consistently high level is you don’t maintain a reasonable level of physical fitness.

Dan was gracious enough to allow me to post his ideas on elevating your heart rate here.  Check them out.  They are great common sense…

Increase Your Heart Rate

Just 4 words but perhaps THE most important words you will every hear.

Why?

Why is it so important to elevate your heart rate on a regular basis? Before I answer that question I want to tell you a story.

As I travel the world and meet many people I hear a lot of complaints about health. People tell me about joint pain, arthritis, migraine headaches, lack of energy, the list goes on and on. Whenever someone tells me about their health problem I always ask them this simple question:

“How many times a week do you elevate your heart rate to 70% of its maximum?”

Do you know what their answer is 99% of the time?

Zero!

Why is it so important to elevate your heart rate?

Your blood vessels, the arteries and the veins, are a bit over 60,000 miles long (62,000 miles), or 96,500 kilometers.  When your heart rate is elevated it pumps blood at an accelerated pace through your body’s incredibly complicated system of veins and arteries.

This accelerated flow of blood through your body helps to provide increased oxygen to your cells and also helps to keep your veins and arteries clear of plaque that can build up.

Think of the plumbing in your house. After years of use, a drain can easily get clogged up with calcium, sludge and other materials.

If the pipes are too clogged it can shut down the flow of water in your house. A plumber will then have to come out and clear the pipes of the sludge. Your body can also get clogged up and many negative health issues can result.

If you are living a sedentary lifestyle then don’t complain when health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart problems, migraines, lack of energy suddenly appear in your life.

In many cases they are simply the result of the sedentary lifestyle you have chosen.

Change your lifestyle today and reap the rewards of improved health.

Here are the excuses I hear as to why people say they cannot change their lifestyles:

“I don’t have time.”

“I don’t have the money to join a gym”

“I am not strong enough”

Here are my answer to all of these lame excuses:

It only takes 10 min a day to elevate your heart rate and start achieving health benefits. I don’t care who you are, you can spare 10 min in the morning. So consider this
a cop-out excuse….you can make time.

You don’t need to join a gym, in fact you don’t need any gym equipment at all. Here are some examples. 

Do jumping jacks in the morning.

Jump rope in the morning for 5 minutes, then increase to 10 after time.

Walk briskly around your neighborhood or house.

Climb the stairs in your house or office for 10 minutes.

Do aerobics while watching an aerobics show on TV.

Age does not matter. Studies have shown that elderly people in their 80′s benefited from exercise programs.

You can figure 70% of your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220 then multiply that by 0.70 that is your target heart rate.

I’ll be elevating my heart rate a little later today.  We had our first big snow in Denver overnight.  It’s still snowing as a matter of fact.  Once it quits, I’ll be out there with a shovel.  Shoveling snow is one of the best ways I know to elevate your heart rate.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are consistently high performers.  It is easier to become a high performer – and maintain a high level of performance – when you are physically fit.  Increasing your heart rate is a great way to improve your level of fitness.  Dan Robey, author of The Power of Positive Habits says that most of the excuses he hears for not exercising to elevate your heart rate are pretty lame.  Day says that the biggest excuse he hears is that “I don’t have the time for exercise.”  And he’s right – that’s lame excuse.  All you have to do is get up a half hour earlier and you can find the time for a little aerobic exercise that will elevate your heart rate, improve your level of fitness and help you become a consistently high performer.

That’s my take on the relationship between aerobic exercise high performance and success.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud