Tonight I’m sitting in a hotel room fairly frustrated. I cannot get out for a run or walk, and the fitness gear in the hotel doesn’t include anything low impact. I’m starting to having symptoms of withdrawal and it has me wondering if Having what you want has addictive properties to it.

Let me explain. About 2 months ago Rosie (my wife) and I made a life choice to improve our physical life. We’ve done some research, but the corner stone guiding us is a book titled “Younger next year” (there’s a male & female version available … apparently we’re different). To over simplify the book bluntly and simply prescribes working out at least 6 days per week in higher cardio ranges, and stop eating crap!  Forget diets as they don’t work. You need to make a life change.

So we did. We power walk almost every day of the week. We added to our home gym by bringing in a really good stationary bike (good for rainy days … and the coming winter months). We’re researching various gyms in the area.  I’ve even started jogging again after 30 years, and have it up to about 2 kms. We improved our diets by being even more conscious of what we are eating (eg. we used to eat whole wheat breads, now it’s only whole grains). I’ve even switched my drink of choice from beer to lower calorie options such as wine (and if you know how I love a good beer you know this took commitment).

The results are starting to show for me. I have more energy, I’ve lost 10 lbs, and my stamina for exercise is increasing. It’s such a great feeling!  Several weeks ago I started to realize the more I improve the more I want to improve myself. Making the right choices is easier and easier each week.

So back to this evening and my current frustration. On Friday I was out jogging and suddenly had a sharp pain in one of my calf muscles. I stretched and tried to correct it but no matter what I did the pain didn’t go away. On saturday morning it felt better (or so I told myself) so I was out trying to be the macho guy jogging again and the sharp pain came back. So I did a little research and believe I have a muscle strain. Basically I might have micro tears in the muscle 🙁 Everything I read advised NO higher impact exercise for 2 weeks!

So I’ve decided to rest it for at least a week to see what happens. That now eliminates power walking and certainly jogging. I went for a slow walk around the block … but that’s not giving me the exercise fix I crave! I knew the hotel I’m at has a gym so I figured “no problem” … surely they’ll have a bike.  Nope! I actually considered bailing and doing the long drive home for the evening just to get to the stationary bike. Instead I’m cutting my stay to one night here to get what I want tomorrow night.

So I ask … doesn’t this sound a little like withdrawal? If that’s true then is it possible when people have what they want and want what they have … they want even more of it?!?

I am an accredited The Leadership Gift Program^TM Practitioner. This program has helped me become increasingly aware of what I want, and more importantly respond effectively when things take me away from what I want. Although the withdrawal/addiction connections are intended to be tongue in cheek I don’t know how else to describe this feeling.  The best part is I have this happening in both my personal and business worlds. Want to learn more?  I suggest you take advantage of this free webinar coming soon:  http://christopheravery.com/vip and use my VIP code mikeeedwards to receive a $100 discount if you join this community!