Getting (Back) In Shape is Hard Work

I am on a fitness challenge. I've always had a love-hate relationship with exercise so I am trying to take a look at this whole fitness thing from a new perspective.

I was the HS student who walked a mile when she was told to run it, splashed a little water on my face and neck and had her socks knocked off when her gym teacher had her to hold out her wrist to check her pulse. She then ran - if you could call it that - under her watchful eye.

I was the sophmore who joined ROTC in college after rapelling off the Zurn Science Center who was then heckled from the bleachers but what turned out to be a very cool First Sergeant, "my grandmother runs faster than you cadet - and she's dead!" Oh the joy.

I was the cadet in Airborne School who ran, trained, lifted and carried parachutes under the watchful eye of the cadre until she could swing, drop and land on her four points of contact no more. After a few weeks I was passing people when I ran. I would run, look back, and simply not believe my eyes. I was f..l..y..i..n..g...

By end of summer, my wings were gone.

Welcome to my peaks and valleys of fitness.

My most recent peak of fitness - training for a half-marathon - came crashing down on me last year with a knee injury and then shin splints. Hanging out in the valley got to be very . . . unsatisfying.

So knowing my longest peaks of fitness were when I was being held accountable by someone else - I hired a personal trainer. I am making a sincere effort to incorporate healthy lifestyle changes into my days.

I have a lot to learn. But, here's what I've learned so far:

• The metabolism of my youth is gone. It's never coming back. *sigh*
• Everything looks like a calorie when you are counting calories. Everything.
• I don't ever work out this hard on my own. Explains so much.
• A medium mocha from Caribou Coffee is over 460 calories, not counting the chocolate covered coffee beans. Explains so much more.

I am six weeks into this. My strength is going up, my weight is inching downward, and my next step is to incorporate cardio back into the plan. 

I am encouraged by my progress but not so much that I would be motivated enough to continue at this pace on my own. And that's ok. I have 4 1/2 more months to figure this out. The view is so much nicer from the peak.

So help a girl out here. Healthy life style, regular exercise . . . what motivates you?

Photo credit istockphoto

An Incentive Fairy Tale (sort of)

Incentives can be like sunshine on a cloudy day, or they can bring in the rain.

No denying incentives, when used properly, can prompt desired behaviors - or is it to impact outcomes? What was it again??  Incentives change behaviors - not outcomes.  I know that now because I read Incentive Intelligence and bookmark posts like Incentives - Definitions and Actions - A Primer AGAIN! but let me tell you about someone who did not.

Incentives Gone Bad

Once upon a time there was a leader of a team. The team was not working well together. The leader tried praise, recognition, telling the team what she wanted to see, playing on strengths, problem solving issues, not placing blame, asking questions, acknowledging desired behaviors and more. Basically, she did everything "the book" said a good supervisor could do to encourage behaviors - and it didn't work. 

Then it came to her. She'd reward outcomes achieved when desired behaviors were used. If she rewards her staff for these outcomes, and the behaviors that lead to them, they'd get the idea, point will be made and behaviors will be changed. Genius, pure genius! She rewarded the entire team, at varying levels (based on salary), for the department's achievements over the year. She handed out the awards at a staff meeting.

The gesture fell flat. Flat as a pancake. No, flat as a crepe. 

Program Design. . .Plus

There were many things wrong with this incentive, starting with the mishmash of behaviors and outcomes, ending with the fact that no one on the team knew an incentive was at the end of the tunnel and everything in between. The incentive wasn't communicated because, well, the leader didn't know an incentive was at the end of the tunnel until all other options failed to create a cohesive team. 

There was something else amiss here that was much bigger than program design. The leader rewarded her staff for outcomes even though she knew in her heart of hearts they weren't meeting her expectations.

The award was blackmail. It was a bribe - pure and simple. The leader knew it. Her staff knew it too.

Lessons Learned

Don't settle or sell your expectations on the cheap.  You can't buy outcomes, you can't buy committment, and, ok, you can't buy love. The money spent on the awards paid for a lesson in leadership she could never get from a book, a blog or a seminar and is one she will never forget.

"Yeah, buts" No Longer Welcome On My Runs

How come I can't mention or talk about a run without qualifying it with a "yeah, but" in some way? Either my run was slow but steady, not as fast as last time, slower than so-and-so's, tougher than usual, shorter than it should have been, yada yada, the list goes on.

Starting today, I will share my run, map my run, enjoy my run, quit my run, but I will not "yeah, but"  my run. Hear that head? Keep the eyes on the road, look straight ahead and enjoy.

Now, if I only got out there and ran more often . . . .yup, this will be a tough habit to break. Makes me wonder what else I am "yeah, butting" about.

How about you?

Wanted: A Discussion on Travel Incentives

Incentive and recognition awards (particularly those that include travel) have been the subject of recent criticisms in the media. Grab a cup of coffee, put on your thinking cap and read these three statements:

Incentives for motivation are more important than ever before.

Many publicly traded companies are revising and in many cases canceling their travel awards.

My prediction is that . . .companies will bend and cancel most, if not all, the incentive travel for 2009 if there is any hint that it could be at the expense of jobs or other business expenses that seem more "normal."

These statements belong to Paul Herbert. Paul is the brains behind Incentive Intelligence, a recognized authority on incentives and performance motivation, and part of the team at Fistful of Talent.

Do you agree with the statements, or not? Hold that thought.

Here are some travel facts: the travel industry, including business and incentive travel, contributes more than $730 billion to the U.S. economy; business-related travel generates 2.4 million American jobs, $244 billion in spending and $39 billion in tax revenue at the federal, state and local level; meetings and conventions account for over $100 billion in annual expenditures; meetings and events are responsible for nearly 15% of all travel in the United States;and the U.S. Commerce Department predicts a loss of 247,000 travel related jobs in 2009

This information was provided by our friends at Fistful of Talent. They are interested in fostering a dialogue on what could be a developing issue affecting businesses across the country and are placing Paul at the helm this discussion. Paul wrote about Nortel and Wells Fargo, thinks incentives are more important than ever before and that 2009 will be a problem for incentive travel awards.

What do you think? Let Paul know and join the discussion. Every voice is important.