One of today’s leading physicians and authors on longevity, Peter Attia, MD, (The Drive Podcast) has written some of the best work to date about the science of exercise, movement, health span, and life span. Exercise is the best predictor for favorable outcomes in terms of physical health and mental health. It beats out diets, supplements, styles of eating, and anything else that comes to mind. Exercise is so vital I think of it like air.

 

To digress for a moment, simple deep breathing for about a minute completely regulates our nervous systems. Imagine the power of a simple exercise for a few minutes and its profound impact on your emotional balance, clear-thinking, feeling energized, and elevating an optimistic state of mind from dopamine activation. People who already regularly exercise can dig deep into specific states of physical performance that can correlate very highly with leadership performance. It’s a simple outcome in which your body is working towards or consistently returning to an optimal state. People who are struggling with exercise may find it overwhelming. However, there are a few simple practices than can create this habit.

 

The first is making an appointment with exercise. As we all know, if there is an appointment on your calendar you are highly less likely to forget or cancel it. Likewise, when you see your exercise appointment for tomorrow, you know the specific planning that needs to happen the day before. You can make your appointment for 15 minutes to start. Show up and do it Monday through Friday. Create as much diversity in your exercise as possible to keep the “fun factor,” which delights the brain with novelty. Have an exercise partner a few days a week if you can, as that also increases the likelihood of keeping your appointment. Set a daily goal, then a weekly goal, then a monthly goal. When you follow these steps you are creating a good habit. Your habit then becomes a routine, and the routine will steadily reward you in noticeable ways. It will become what the famous psychologist Howard Glasser writes about in his book Positive Addiction There is nothing to judge yourself over if your routine gets purposely (through vacation) or unintentionally (through illness) disrupted. Just show up and start over.

 

The Exercise:

1. Write down three types of activity you are willing to try. As long as you are moving, it counts.

2. Set a daily goal with an amount of time to exercise and put it on your calendar as recurring appointment five days a week. Write the type of exercise for each exercise day.

3. Ask one person if they are interested in joining your exercise for one of those days.

4. Prepare anything you need the night before for your exercise (an alarm, clothing, equipment, if you have children plan for coverage or pre-plan their needs).