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As most companies know, project management and project management training, as needed, is very important for the health and well being of the companies. Project managers manage the scope, breadth and length of projects, as well as content, in order to ensure that they are done properly and successfully. However, you might not know that health and fitness needs project management, too.
Simply put, just as you need project managers to manage your work-related projects, so that they are done completely and thoroughly with every element addressed, project management training principles can be used to manage your own health and fitness. Just as with project management training, you must train yourself to manage your health and fitness, so that you cover all aspects needed. These aspects include diet and nutrition, exercise and fitness, stress management and reduction and elimination of any particularly unhealthy vices as coping mechanisms, such as excessive use of alcohol or the use of drugs or tobacco in order to help relieve and manage stress.
Now, in order to manage each of these aspects, first of all, organize them just as you would do so with a project in terms of project management training. Figure out what each aspect will entail in terms of length of time needed to accomplish your health and fitness goal. Second of all, this particular project has a "maintenance" aspect to it, so once you have attained your goals in each area, figure out what you will need to do to maintain the level of fitness and health you have achieved. Likely, your maintenance plan will look somewhat similar to the plan of action you laid out in order to achieve your goals in the first place. It may simply be that instead of having each goal as the central focus it needs to be while you are incorporating these new skills, each of them will simply be incorporated into each day in a sort of "maintenance" capacity.
Now, for instance, let's take the first area, diet and nutrition. In what way are you lacking proper diet and nutrition, and how has this contributed to your current level of ill health and/or lack of fitness? Just as with project management training, you need to figure out where in this area you are lacking and ensconce yourself in a kind of project management training to give yourself a plan wherein you can improve your diet and subsequently your nutritional status for your own health and fitness. For instance, are you grabbing fast food as a way to get meals out of the way quickly, without giving much thought to what actually goes in to them, so that you're not getting proper nutrition? Or, are you eating too much of everything, whether good or fast food and/or junk food, so that you're getting too many calories?
Once you've figured out the problem, next, figure out the solution and a way to slowly correct the problem, so that changes aren't too jarring or sudden, but can still be incorporated relatively comfortably. Remember that this is going to be a lifestyle change, not a quick fix and temporary solution for your health and fitness. Therefore, perhaps if you have realized that you grab fast food at least once a day, or three times per week, etc., and that this is where a lot of your unhealthy diet is coming from, make a pact and a plan with yourself just as you would with project management, to substitute most of those meals for healthier options, so that you are only grabbing fast food once per week. This way, if you truly view eating fast food as a pleasurable experience, you can still have "a little" of it without entirely giving it up, but still improve your health markedly.
Now, onto the second area, exercise and fitness. Have you let yourself go in regard to your level of fitness? If your job does not allow you to incorporate plenty of exercise into your day as a matter of course, then you're going to have to find ways to fit it in. One of the big reasons Americans get behind in their level of fitness is that they think they don't have enough time to formally exercise, and in fact, this is probably true. However, getting in shape doesn't mean that you have to go to the gym three times a week. You can start by simply taking the stairs at work whenever you can instead of the elevator. This alone will improve your health and fitness levels. Or, you can park farther away from your office building and walk. One suggestion is to invest in a pedometer, which is an inexpensive piece of equipment that attaches to your belt and measures the number of steps you take every day. The ultimate goal of steps per day taken is 10,000, but you can start with a goal as simple as 2000 or 3000 and work your way up from there. Once you start with that, you may find that you actually enjoy exercise and will want to vary your routine so that you get other types of exercise in. However, this still doesn't mean you have to go to the gym, unless you find that you want to ultimately. It can mean, simply, that you do push-ups in the morning before you take your shower, or sit-ups at night before you go to bed. There are many ways to almost painlessly work exercising into your day, so that you are physically active, without having to "exercise" in a gym or other formal setting.
Next, on to the area, stress management and reduction. Perhaps you find, as many people do, that your job is incredibly stressful and that this in and of itself can cause you to use unhealthy coping behaviors, such as overeating or using alcohol, recreational drugs, or caffeine, to help you cope. Or, perhaps you smoke, and you feel that this calms you as well. Of course, you want to minimize and/or eliminate these behaviors, especially the smoking and recreational drug use, to be at your healthiest. Now, it might surprise you to know that one of the best stress reducers is exercise, so just by increasing your level of health and fitness, you have already incorporated a healthy stress reduction mechanism into your day. When you feel like you're under stress, your new project management training might simply mean taking a 10 minute walk, or doing a couple of runs up and down the stairs to help you cope with stress, since you get to burn off some steam with physical activity. In this way, then, your attention to health and fitness impacts your stress reduction. Similarly, your diet also impacts your stress, since a healthier diet will contain vitamins and minerals that will naturally calm you, such as B vitamins, magnesium and calcium.
Finally, your project management training plan should include the ultimate elimination of unhealthy habits such as recreational drug use, excessive alcohol use and smoking. Just as with the other areas, much of this can be approached gradually over time, although with the illegal drug use, this should be addressed immediately, since of course, you're also breaking the law as well as impacting your health negatively. And as mentioned above, by increasing your level of physical activity and fitness, improving your diet and reducing your stress, you have already given yourself a head start with getting off of illegal drugs, reducing excessive alcohol intake, and stopping smoking, since the use of all of these things occur as a means to cope with stress. It might also in part impact diet as well, since if you're drinking excessively, for example, you're probably not eating properly.
Properly applied, project management training can be utilized to manage your health and fitness as well. With some diligence and careful attention, you should see results in a very short period of time.
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