So far, the evolution of our exercise and fitness techniques has done wonders to improve our muscular strength, balance and flexibility, increase our cardiovascular efficiency and reduce our body fat.

However, the problem is that many of the movements, motions and techniques found in the local gym have no correlation to the needs or goals of your life. For example, do bicep curls apply to your everyday life? Running on a treadmill provides cardiovascular health, but its application to the needs of everyday life seems to be somewhat ill defined.

I have been in the health professional for over a decade and have thought long and hard upon the meaning and value exercise represents in our lives.

While the main focus of exercise seems to be upon physical and aesthetic results I believe that another layer of benefit can be added to improve upon our desire and motivation to exercise as well as increase the return on our energetic and monetary investments.

Here are some questions to consider as you ponder the role of exercise in your life:

What motivates you to improve your life?

·Is it the advancement of your life station, the exploration of your unique abilities and the constant learning that you obtain as a result of your direct experience that provides you the most pleasure and reward?

What are the goals of your life?

·What does it take to be successful in these goals? ·Is your life station being advanced by your efforts?

Is there a direct application exercise provides your life?

·Are you learning about yourself during your exercise routines? ·Would you like your exercise routines to have a more meaningful impact upon your life?

What makes a person successful? I believe success is something that is practiced through a combination of commitment, perseverance, staying true to your word, integrity, and other attributes. With these attributes sufficiently developed any individual can attain success in whatever form they choose for their life.

The question is how does one practice and develop these somewhat nebulous concepts?

My answer is exercise.

Here is how it works…

Our sub-conscious mind responds to whatever we repeatedly do and what thoughts we constantly think. Also, whatever we practice we get better at. For example, positive thinking becomes more positive. Negative thinking becomes more negative.

If you think positively your health reflects this. You can see it in the eyes, skin, hair and energy. A positive person positively shines while a negative person brings the whole world down.

By consciously choosing to practice exercise as a means to develop and strengthen not only your body but also specific attributes of success, you will create a powerful mind/body association

Consider this scenario: If you go to the gym and decide that you are going to stay true to your word and that today in the gym you are going to get on the bike for twenty minutes. You work hard towards this goal and all the while you are exercising on the bike you maintain this inward focus. Not only will you improve your health, not only will you lose fat, but you will also improve your ability to focus, your ability to commit, your ability to follow through upon what you say goes in your life and your ability to succeed!

This is the true power of what exercise can do for your life!

Decide before your workout what attributes you need more of in your life. Do you need more practice committing or is integrity something you need more of? Whichever you choose they all can be practiced in the gym setting. Consider the following examples:

·Commitment – decide what exercise you will perform, for what time interval you will perform it and at what level of intensity. Then follow through upon your intention and DO NOT STOP until you are successful.

·Integrity – find your most powerful and uplifting posture. Lift weights while maintaining this posture. Use the weights as a means to challenge your posture. The integrity is staying true to your form while being challenged.

·Perseverance – once again pick an exercise and choose how intense you want to exercise (keep it safe). After you reach the end of your set, increase the number of reps or increase the weight and DON’T STOP (unless you feel pain) until you complete the set as you intended. Persevere through the effort and discomfort until you reach your goal.

There are many other attributes that can be practiced and all it takes is some imagination and some thought to apply them to the gym. Balance, learning to adapt, endurance, intimacy, self-connection, inner listening, improving confidence and so on.

The real nectar you receive from working out this way is that when you reach the goals you set for yourself as a result of your intention, you create for yourself a physical-mental memory anchor.

Then when you are in your life and you feel your integrity or commitment being challenged you can remember this anchor. You remember that if you can last twenty minutes on the treadmill at 6.5 mph and remain true to that, than you can most certainly overcome whatever obstacle you are currently facing in your work or personal life.