Core Daily
One Small Change
Throw Out One Thing Every Day
Matteo.Mazzoni on flickr
One of the best days of my life (right up there with when I rented a front-end loader to distribute mulch in the neighborhood and, oh yes, the births of my two kids) is when a dumpster was dropped in my backyard to accommodate the refuse of a home-renovation project.
It had a big yellow chute so you could slide stuff down from an upstairs window, but I most enjoyed pitching things in willy-nilly from ground-level like it was a giant basketball hoop. Man, I loved that thing. Even though it was an ugly rusted hulk, after two months I was sorry to see it go. Throwing things out made me feel light and strong and free.
If you think I’m nuts, I challenge you to join me for this month’s One Small Change experiment. Unfortunately, there won’t be any dumpsters dropped in our yards, but I’ll try to replicate that experience as best I can. For every day in May, I’m going to throw out one thing. And since this is Core Performance, I’m going to narrow the focus to throwing out fitness-related things.
I anticipate that starting out will be easy. If you’re like me, you probably have a nest of old sports gear in the basement, garage or maybe even serving as clothes racks in your bedroom. (God bless the NordicTrack for that.) After we work our way through this material stuff, we’ll turn our attention to wasteful parts of our workouts—actual exercises or ineffective ways of doing things that need pruning. And finally, toward the end of the month, we’ll try to chuck some psychological (gym) baggage—beliefs about getting in shape, building muscle and losing weight that are outdated and maybe even holding us back. It’ll be our own unique form of spring-cleaning.
Sound interesting? The inspiration for this experiment comes from a new book called Throw Out Fifty Things by the aptly named Gail Blanke. She contends that the clutter in our lives weighs us down physically and psychologically, preventing us from focusing and progressing. Although she advocates clean sweeping all the corners of life, I suspect her theory will work just as well when applied to fitness. For instance:
- I bought the lightest road bike I could afford but then promptly accessorized it with multiple water-bottle cages, a cycle-computer, a repair kit and even a cell-phone holder. Does that make any sense? Pitch ’em!
- I’m always whining I don’t have enough time to train, but when I go to the gym I end up reading the newspaper, chatting with friends, watching the women’s aerobics class.... Cut it!
- I work out hard all the time. I mean, I’ve had people move away from me on the treadmill because I sweat so much. But as I get older, I need to let go of the belief that easy exercise is no exercise. The body needs recovery. Out with that mindset!
Get the idea? Ideally, if this experiment is anything like my dumpster encounter, by the end of the month I should actually feel fitter, not to mention more aerodynamic.
So what do you say? Do you want to join me in throwing out 31 fitness-related things? Who knows? Maybe what’s preventing you from getting a six-pack isn’t your worth ethic but rather the simple fact that you’re an inefficient packrat.
It’s time to make one small change….
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About The Author
Joe Kita – Joe Kita is a noted writer, editor, motivational speaker and teacher. He authors the blog "One Small Change" for CorePerformance.com.
