A Motivating Factor

Even when things get busy, I usually manage to fit one or two episodes of TV watching on the weekends. You always make time for the things you like to do, and I definitely like to stack up the pillows on my bed on a weekend, turn the bedside lamp on, and settle in for a good story about my character peeps solving their world-changing problems time after time. So when it's 10:30pm on a Tuesday and I'm still at work, the version of myself in TV-watching position is what I imagine when I envision the light at the end of the tunnel.

Though TV is typically an evening activity, what happened near the end of a recent trip was that I got too tired and unmotivated for exercise in the morning so decided that as an incentive, I'd put on an episode of some good show whenever I went to the gym.

(Side note: I've always wondered how people can watch the news while exercising. It sounds like a double whammy situation. As my Econ professor would say, just stick with the single whammy. I recall recording this joke on the margin of my Econ notes in college. Yes, good times.)

I ended up playing Scandal while "speed walking" on an inclined treadmill every morning the final week of that project, which, though is concessionary and barely exercise, still made my days better. I'm convinced. At any rate, it took two and half mornings of gym time to watch through a single episode of drama, not to mention it got awkwardly tricky when certain scenes came up. All in all, it was a fairly unsatisfying viewing experience, but was surprisingly effective at getting me out of bed.

Tricks of the trade for ya, although I don't recommend sharing with your Soulcycling coworkers the fact that sauntering in front of your laptop-turned-TV is your new favorite way to work out. You just won't win.