The Power of Bandwidth, Focus and Momentum If you’ve spent any time on Facebook over the past six months, you’ve seen the video entitled “A Valuable Lesson For A Happier Life” In it, a professor shows his students that when you fill your jar of life first with the most important elements of life (family, friends, health, and passions), there is room for the more mundane tasks and priorities around them. However, if you fill up a jar with small, menial tasks, your jar is too full to fit in the large commitments that provide you with the most happiness. Make sure you take a little time out to watch the video again because I believe the analogy applies just as much to happiness as it does to your flow state as a gym owner. I want you to imagine that the jar represents the bandwidth of energy you have to devote to your business activities. It’s a finite space, and if you fill it with the wrong things first, you have no room for the tasks that provide you with the biggest return on investment. Imagine the sand in the jar are all the little tasks that you can spend time on in the gym like taking out the trash, repairing equipment or even coaching classes. These are necessary tasks that make a gym run, but should you fill up your jar with them? Coaching is a great example of a sandy activity. You feel that by coaching classes you’re keeping in touch with your clients and keeping your skills sharp. But much like sand, coaching spreads everywhere and gets into your shoes, your ears and your swimsuit (and that stuff chafes!). A one-hour class means one hour beforehand prepping and greeting athletes, one hour leading the workout, 10 minutes after to cheer on the last finishers, and another 30 minutes saying goodbye as people walk out the door. ...
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