By Scott Grayston
In all walks of life, setting targets and trying to meet them is the most productive way to get the most out of yourself. This applies heavily to fitness and training.
Many of my friends took on the ‘100K in May’ challenge and that was a brilliant way to challenge yourself and give you a target to hit that’s achievable but demanding.
Whether you intend to get fitter, stronger or smarter, there are always targets you can set.
Some ideas
Only use public transport or cars once a week. Try and find ways to walk or cycle to everywhere you go and make the most of your surroundings. You can now rent Careem bicycles in many areas so there aren’t any excuses. Who knows, you might find some hidden gems in your area that you have never visited before?
Challenge yourself to be able to do 100 press ups in one go. Practice makes perfect. If you keep adding 10 more press ups to your set and you’ll find yourself improving and getting stronger by the week. Even if you don’t quite get to 100, there is no doubt you’ll be able to do far more push-ups than you could originally.
Read a new book every week. Reading is important and if you set yourself targets for when you need to finish a book by, it will encourage you to pick it up and read more. Once this becomes a routine, it will benefit your intelligence and keep you away from technology.
Start waking up earlier and going to bed earlier. With many people having less working hours now due to COVID-19, it’s easy to get into a routine of staying up late playing video games or watching Netflix and waking up late. However, it will only take a week or so to get into a routine of getting up early and then you’ll find yourself waking up before your alarm goes off. When this happens, you don’t have any excuses for not exercising or working and your days will feel far more complete.
Learn about a different topic every month. Everyone has weaknesses and wants to improve on them but often doesn’t have the time to practice or learn. I’ve set myself a target to try and learn every capital city in the world. There’s 195 so it’s pretty unlikely I’ll get there but even if I learn 60%, it’s far more than I knew originally. Pick yourself a topic and see how you get on.
Do a different sporting activity every week with a friend or partner. There is so much to do in Dubai and often we don’t take advantage of it all. My friends came up with the idea to have a sporting night one day of the week when four of us would compete in a different sport then keep count of the score. Once you get to the end of the month, the losing team has to host and cook dinner for the winners. The best thing about this concept is that you might discover a new passion and continue playing it after.
I hope this helps you set some targets so you keep productive through this challenging period.
