Doing it All

But really, how do you do it all?

I just finished enjoying a glorious three-day weekend where I did absolutely no work—an entrepreneur's dream and nightmare. I love visiting my parents' cabin in northern Wisconsin. It’s nestled in the woods, with no neighbors, no internet, and limited cellphone service. I always leave feeling recharged because we spend so much time unplugged, either outside or having quality time together inside.

On the flip side, we spent five hours driving each way, and then we had to come home and prepare for the week: laundry, groceries, meal planning, schedule reviews, lawn care, and tidying up the house. The list goes on! While my husband and I navigated through our to-do list, I couldn’t help but think about my other list—the work list. It never ends, and I add to it daily. The curse of being a visionary is that I come up with ideas faster than I can execute them.

I’ve gotten better over the years at sorting through the good ideas, prioritizing them as needed, and chipping away at the list. Unfortunately, I still find myself worrying that I’m not doing enough or that I’ll let someone down. In the past, I would burn myself out trying to be perfect for everyone else. People would ask, “How do you do it all?” and I’d just smile and say, “I don’t know, I just do.” But the reality was that I was exhausting myself to maintain that appearance. Over the years, I’ve recognized the achiever in me, and as one of my clients would say, “I gave myself a talking to” and decided to let those expectations go.

Upon returning to work on Tuesday, I quickly reviewed my calendar Monday night and figured it would all work out—and it did, mostly. I scrambled in the morning to prepare for my clients, sent some last-minute emails to complete paperwork, updated programs, responded to emails, and managed scheduling messages while chipping away at my tasks throughout the day. I even had a cancellation, which allowed me to squeeze in my own strength workout—even though I did NOT feel like doing it by that point!

As I finished my work and was driving home, a thought struck me: I could have lost sleep Monday night to show up “more prepared” on Tuesday, but I don't think anyone felt their experience was lacking. Sometimes, we simply can’t do it all. We often put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve perfection in our home, work, and social lives, but in reality, that’s not attainable. We’re all just doing our best.

So, how do you do it all? The answer is you don’t. Some days you'll meet expectations with impressive productivity, and other days you might choose to go to bed early and hope for a better day tomorrow!

What does this have to do with strength training? Some days you’ll crush your workout, other days you just show up, and sometimes you might need to call it a rest day. We hope most days are filled with successful workouts, a few days of simply showing up, and only limited occasions of taking a rest day. That's precisely why we are here! It's also why I’ve dedicated my career to fine-tuning the philosophy that less can be more when it comes to working out. I know that on most days, I can commit to 45 minutes of activity, even if I don’t feel like it.