Corporate Wellness Plans
Whether you are an employee or an employer corporate wellness plans should be a part of your team for overall success.
We spend a great deal of our time away from our families and give up a great part of our lives as employees serving in different areas of expertise.
Our time and health can often times be neglected and corporate wellness plans shared by companies and employees can help gain that back.
I guess the whole point in me writing this lengthly post is the importance of time and health.
Money is plentiful, there are over 1.7 trillion dollars traded daily on the NY stock exchange.
Money is limitless.
Time is not yet we freely trade it for things that generally don't mean much in the big scheme of things.
At the end of your life is that certificate of achievement you got at work or that ‘excellent' box you got checked on your employee evaluation going to really matter or is the amount of time you got to spend with your spouse, child or friends going to matter more?
We only have on life and at the end of it I don't want anyone to ask themselves I wish I would have taken the time to go after my dreams, then to have someone take my time and achieve their dreams with it.
We barely seem to have the time to enjoy our lives and take care of our health due to the fact that we spend so much of our time trying to handle tasks, missions, meeting spec.
Corporate wellness plans are becoming more and more important as corporations and companies see the value in ensuring their employees have that available time to workout and take care of themselves.
Invest In A RunDreamAchieve Training Plan Today
The Importance
I have been an active duty member for the past 12 years.
Two deployments later the idea of gaining control and leverage of my time and helping others do the same is even more important.
Having your base get attacked makes one wake up to reality very quick.
It makes you value time and creates a motivational factor in your life that I cannot express in a post here on my site.
I have seen what the work place can do to well-meaning, educated and hard-working people.
They are taking great care to ensure the boss looks good, their sections and people are taken care of but fitness and wellness takes a backseat as work days become longer and time with family in the evening becomes shorter.
There is an enormous strain in advanced nations as people get less sleep, are burning their time up in corporate meetings and trying to accomplish as much as possible before going home.
Monday through Friday is prostituted for Saturday and Sunday. While people easily recognize and reject a negative 60% return on their money, they do it willingly with their time. -MJ Demarco
It is a circle of madness sometimes.
People getting up before the sun rises to be in a meeting before 7 am and by the time they drive home from work they barely have any free time left.
Where is the time to workout, to take care of oneself?
We have a good system in the military as Soldiers are required to do physical training in the mornings prior to the work day starting.
My concern has always been the amount of sleep Soldiers and Department of Defense civilians are getting on account of their work responsibilities.
We demand so much from our people, work responsibilities become so great is it any wonder we have Soldiers in our military with stress disorders and employee dis-satisfaction growing?
The same goes for the civilian sector.
It does come down to time management but the more people are asked to handle responsibilities at work and home, the less time is available to work out.
It looks grim but we all have the resolve and fortitude to overcome the status quo, normal way of doing things.
All I am saying is you don't have to accept this as reality in your life if you don't want to.
My Viewpoint
I have thoroughly written extensive articles on why I feel health and fitness should play a larger role in people's lives then it is.
Everyone is an athlete.
I don't care if you are 150 pounds and can qualify for the Olympic Trials in an Olympic event or you are 400 pounds eating potato chips wanting to get in better shape, you still have a shot at success but you have to want it.
Sometimes all it takes is someone to take the time to reach out to you.
We get so caught up in meeting spec, ensuring deliveries are made on time and on budget, preparing for meetings, getting the kids ready for school or what have you, that less and less time is available for ourselves.
Everyone can manage their time better and has those skills but overcoming the inertia of getting started and breaking free from what has been engrained in you since high school isn't always easy.
As a military member we become hardened to our environment.
I was a part of the 101st Airborne Division from 2012-2013 while stationed at Fort Campbell, KY.
My time was limited and I quite often asked myself,
How can I best utilize my time considering all that is being asked of me?
People with jobs, especially high stress level positions, can be more concerned with pleasing their bosses and accomplishing daily tasks at work, than taking time out for their health.
They mean well, but because they care so much for their profession, which can be a blessing, something even more important, health can easily be overlooked.
Plans Must Motivate Others
Corporate wellness plans should encompass something that is going to empower your employees or yourself to live healthier and with that more confidence.
We have to allow time in our schedule, no matter how busy our lives can get, to take care of our health, our families.
If you work 40 hours or more in a week, have children to attend to or someone you may love that needs your attention, this can, understandably, be an extremely difficult task.
That being said, don't let the pressures of work and your environment dictate what you can and cannot accomplish.
Once you free yourself from the need for perfect acceptance, it’s a lot easier to launch work that matters. -Seth Godin
Expect it to be tough but also remind yourself of the level of commitment you have.
We all can do more than we currently are doing and we all can seek out alternatives to free our time.
Why more don't is a fact that I still am bewildered by.
As I mentioned above, the 400 pound athlete seeking to get in better shape may not be making a wise choice of sitting on the couch choosing to eat potato chips but the choice to change is always there, ever present.
It takes motivated people to make things happen in their lives.
You could suggest something to someone they have been doing their whole life as an athlete and create dramatic change in their performances.
For example, conducting long runs at a faster pace.
I think we all know long runs conducted at a leisurely pace is not conducing to marathon efforts at race pace.
Two totally different areas war are talking about here.
The idea that you can keep doing the same training and expecting a different result is old, washed up and needs to be revised.
Actionable goals demands that the athlete take actionable steps to make those golds reality.
Your environment can easily dictate how your day goes.
The things we may hear at the workplace may frustrate us and lower our moral, it is a choice we must make to decide if we are going to take action and do something about it or remain where we are.
Trust me, if your an employee, the work will be there waiting for you tomorrow as will the drama.
If you have worked your whole life and want something more than being an employee perhaps People Before Profit will be an article that you may need to read.
Do the best job you can do at work but at the same time don't neglect yourself and your overall fitness.
You owe it to yourself to go out for a 30-minute walk or 10 mile run regardless what obstacles you may face in your daily routine.
Why Working Out Is Important
I have been an athlete since I was 15 and have been fascinated with anatomy and physiology for the past 23 years of my life.
Time, our health and families are the most important blessings we have yet we easily can neglect our time and health and value the paycheck more.
The corporate world can be hectic.
People, by only doing what they have been taught, usually (but not always) accept that the normal route of earning a living is by means of a job.
Go to school, get good grades, whatever you do, don't fail and learn a trade so you can go out and become an employee and be managed by a boss.
We are taught to be consumers and how to get a job, not how to be producers and how to leverage our time in our formal schooling.
Some many disagree with me.
I hold a bachelors and masters degree and nothing I was ever taught in college or graduate school ever taught me what I have written about here or in other articles here on RDA.
This is RUN. DREAM. ACHIEVE, not run.com
I want people who visit this site to think about their time, life, families and their health, not just read any how-to article you easily find on runningtimes.com
There are others who follow a different route, who flunk out from school, are renegades if you will, who have never had a job and oddly enough, produce an enormous income by becoming an entrepreneur.
Their worth in money isn't relative to me, it is the control over their time that I am getting at here.
How much leverage of your time do you have?
Do you get a warm and fuzzy over thinking over that?
Examples of such people would be Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, Steve Jobs of Apple or Andrew Carnegie who didn't even finish elementary school or went on to become a multi-billionaire.
Implementation of corporate wellness plans should encompass empowering your people to have allotted time in their day to work out.
Soldiers don't necessarily have a choice.
They are ordered to be at a formation usually before 6:30am daily to workout before work even begins.
If you are in the healthcare industry like me your morning starts even earlier.
I have had to make the conscious choice of being trained or untrained to make it in a very competitive sport while juggling a full-time job.
No one handed me a 2.19.35 marathon PR.
No one gave a damn whether I failed or succeeded, got up to run or not, finished my 22 miler on the weekend or chose to watch looney tunes on television.
It took massive work and focus and I do the same here at RDA, no short cuts.
Participating Is A Choice
Entrepreneurs are no better than employees.
They simply chose a different option and route to take with their life.
I have enormous respect for both employees and entrepreneurs simply because both encompass the drive to excel.
If you are unhappy with your life and feel like you're trading your time for a paycheck, that the idea of retiring when you're 65 when you're in your golden years is the way to go, then perhaps entrepreneurship is not something you should consider.
If the idea of retiring old, rather then young seems to make more logical sense and want to know how you have that option as well.
It is a choice and it isn't up to me or anyone else to make you decide.
Perhaps you'll remember this post on a rather hectic day at work and come back and re-read it for motivation and take action later.
Your health and well-being still need to be a focus in your life and whether you choose to be an employee and work for someone else or be an entrepreneur and decide to work for yourself, time still needs to be etched out in your day to workout.
The television or money sitting in your bank account never helped anyone lose weight or run a Boston marathon qualifying time.
Life is more then a paycheck, what type of ride you drive to work in or the number of rooms in your house.
Your time, health and family are far more important than a paycheck.
Employees rely on a paycheck and to earn that paycheck by trading time that must be given in exchange for funds being deposited into their account.
People, who choose to be an employee, fill their gas tanks up several times a week just to get to work.
Their level of stress can be much higher then an entrepreneur who may have much more free time on their hands to workout and take care of themselves.
Laziness Is A Choice
Entrepreneurs can, just as easily, become complacent with their health as employees despite having more freedom and flexibility within their schedules
It is a choice to chase money or health.
We can do both but the latter is more important, don't get it twisted.
Employees can become disgruntled by their work environment, the people they associate with at work and the endless gossip that goes on in the corporate world.
It still a choice we all make as to whether we are going to remain unhappy or take action.
I wrote extensive about the difference between talented athletes and individuals with very little talent who outsmart and outperform their much faster and more talented brethren by making the choice to travel the path less traveled in hard work beats talent.
Laziness is a choice but it doesn't have to be a choice one has to maintain.
Regardless where you are currently at in life always remember there is always time to start over and there never will be the right time as you and I are not even promised a tomorrow.
If your overweight you can still be sexy and do more than you are currently asking of yourself.
We all have the same 24 hours in a day, whether we are rich or poor, employee or an entrepreneur.
The decision to act and to break the resistance to do the opposite is always there.
Life can always be more fulfilling if we will simply be open to new ways of thinking and ideas.
If you are an employee and feel you don't have the time to devote to corporate wellness plans your company may have set up, take a time-out and talk things over with your boss, a friend or co-worker.
A great company will care for its employees as the employee makes the company what it is.
Regardless of size or prowess, companies are only as good as the people they employ.
If you are at that point in your life where you feel you have given up enough time and want to choose a new path in your life there are meaningful ways to earn a living that I guarantee were never taught to you in high school or college.
I am a huge fan of education but believe firmly in the words of one of the world's most sought after motivational speaker, entrepreneurs and consultant, Jim Rohn, when he said,
Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune
Formal education has taught us to comply and in most cases, follow what we have been taught to do, learn a skill so we can get a job.
What ever happened to trading history classes with financial education courses, memorizing dates of wars over learning ways to earn the amount of money one makes in a year in a day?
It is weird, strange, because it is not the common way of thinking. Be a consumer is the status quo train of thought, not being a producer.
People Will Change On Their Time
I can write 2000-5000 word posts on life changing opportunities that will actually alleviate the time-work barrier but it isn't my job to change the reader.
It is no different then the athletes that pay me to coach them.
The coach is there to guide and direct but the athlete makes the decision if they want to create change and do what others won't in order to create a sought after result.
The athlete makes that conscious decision to follow the path less traveled.
If it takes getting up at 4am before work to make that goal come to life then so be it, the athlete is the decision maker.
The coach is only there to direct that change and nurture it.
I went to graduate school while working a full-time military job on top of putting in 100-120 mile weeks trying to break the 2.22.00 marathon barrier.
It was a lot to ask of myself but had I not took the initiative the goal of a graduate school education or running a marathon at 5.25 mile pace would have been a pipe dream.
The problem with goals is everyone wants them but don't always realize the enormous focus and effort it takes to see them through.
Who wants to wait decades to achieve what someone with much more talent can achieve in a year or two?
That person is me and quite possibly that person is you.
It took me 18 years to break the 2.20.00 marathon barrier and endless failures, the joy was never lost. I was hungry and I wanted it.
What are you hungry for?
What do you want?
More time?
It isn't our job to change people.
A closed mind is not yours to open.
The coach guides the athlete, gives them solutions to problems that may have caused them heartache in their past.
The athlete can listen, review their results and make the decision to follow the advice or go off on their own and try to make it on their own.
Neither way is necessarily bad but someone who has done something you wish to do or aspire to should be taken seriously, especially if they care for you and want to see you do well.
Corporate Wellness Plans | Work, Time And Freedom
I have been heavily involved in the sport of middle to long distance running since 1992.
My expertise lies in exercise physiology, studying the energy systems of the body and getting people to use those systems more effectively.
I understand adaptation very well as well as failure.
I think failure is most certainly a part of overall success in our fitness and health and frowned upon and shunned.
When most people fail they are often times looked at as losers when really they are winners in that they made the attempt that the next individual would have been unwilling to even try.
If you put in part time work, plan on part time results.
The corporate routine will always be there waiting for you otherwise.
Successful people understand failure as well as persistence quite well.
You need to be all-in and focused on what you want.
My job isn't to change you.
If you like where you are at in life and don't feel like you want to change anything than I fully support you, continued blessings to you as well.
That being said, very rarely do I run into people that are fully content with their lives, health, jobs or where they are at in their life.
As I get older the more time and having freedom of it, plays a more crucial role in my level of motivation.
I write extensively on fitness, running and ways for people to gain more leverage over the time they do have.
Wanting hurts, looks quite a bit like sacrifice, sweat, failure and uncertainty.
We live in a world with ever increasing amounts of uncertainty, being brave and living on the edge, taking risks that others more often than not wouldn't, remains more of an incentive to take action.
Doing is freedom.
It is asking yourself to do something that seems frightening and going for it anyway, letting go of the fear you have held for years.
It is seeking ways to totally disregard the path that the majority follow and not being afraid to try to go the route less traveled.
What's more important, education experience in how to pay your bills, or education and experience of something that can provide emotional freedom – MJ Demarco
I have a video of Steve Jobs on this website that I encourage you to watch.
He talks about the fact that the knowledge that we are going to die, although a humble reality, should make us want to do everything in our power to look at the possibilities (now, rather than later) that we have been given to live, rather than just feel we are cogs in a machine, existing.
Taking action on goals is a personal choice we all must take, sometimes it can scary, uncertain.
It is a process, the event is what everyone wants (money, new personal best, lose weight), the process, is not so appealing and why so many fall away.
Results take too long and the alternatives that could free you from the unhappiness you feel as an employee have been defined as schemes.
Solutions that don't work and because these phrases hold true for many, these same individuals will accept what is safe and what everyone else has been indoctrinated as the only way to income and a paycheck.
The hungry are willing to look for what others view as painful in see it in as pleasurable.
They take what is pessimistically viewed and see an opportunity.
They are fed up with the way they are living whether that be financially, emotionally or physically and attack their fears.
Process is daily work. It’s your daily choices. It’s your daily thoughts; it’s your daily actions. It’s taking in hard choices, like turning off the TV, and making the sacrifices that most people won’t – MJ Demarco
It is the knowledge of not trying and having to live with that thought that I, personally, do not want to live with nor do I want you to live with.
I don't know where you are from, whether you are an athlete, non-athlete or that 400-pound guy or gal thinking about breaking out of the routine you have been in.
You always have an opportunity.
The fabric of your life is sewn by the cumulative consequences of your choices – millions of them – that you set into motion. You act, react, believe, disbelieve, perceive, misperceive, and all of it engineers your existence. If you’re dissatisfied with life, your choices take full responsibility. Blame yourself and the choices you’ve made. Yes, you are as you have chosen. -MJ Demarco
You may be an employee working for a company that has no corporate wellness plans in their mission statement or one that works for one that does.
We all have a choice to be in the wanting or doing category, regardless what we are seeking for in our lives.
Time
This is just my own opinion and perhaps it doesn't matter much but hopefully it resonates with you.
I have been a corporate employee my entire life, but I have studied entrepreneurship in some fashion since I was a kid.
I became fascinated by it in late 2011 when I created rundreamachieve just prior to deploying to Afghanistan, where the idea of having control of my time became very real.
What occurred to me was the the ability to impact someone's life.
The payment for my services wasn't what becoming an entrepreneur was all about for me.
It is taking the time to help others get what they want before you ever consider going after something you want.
People need to motivation, they need someone to give a damn about their goals and dreams.
It matters and caring should as well.
I find no joy in gloating or going into detail about workouts I do.
It is my own humble opinion that people are less interested in what you do but generally more interested in what you can help them achieve.
Giving your time to help someone achieve a goal is one of the biggest blessings anyone can ask for.
We, as employees or entrepreneurs, can either chase money or we can chase leveraging the time we have to help other people and with that comes responsibility and freedom.
It is my responsibility here at RDA to write content that matters to people.
It will not always resonate with everyone but for someone it will and that particular person who opens up and takes action may never be the same person again due to the fact someone took the time to reach out and inspire.
If your time is occupied at a job as an employee then consider what Steve Jobs says in his Stanford University graduation speech in the right sidebar of this website.
I want you to think about what he says in that video, think about your work environment, is it a happy one?
Are you surrounded by joyous, uplifted and happy people who love what they do and are glad to be at work or are you in a negative environment where gossip reins supreme, where tearing one another down and being unhappy is the only option you currently have.
I have provided solutions to people who stop at this website that many people will gladly take a blind ear to.
Please don't be one of them.
This is not run.com
It is run.dream.achieve.com
As Seth Godin stated in one of his interviews,
My expertise is not for the guy sitting in the audience asleep or the woman next to him with her arms crossed with a skeptical look on her face. It is for those at the edge of their seats, that flew thousands of miles to come to hear what I had to say.
If you are an employer please continue to pursue effective corporate wellness plans in your company.
Your employees, their health and fitness as well as their time is critical for their success and yours as a company and/or employer of other people.
Employees need to feel that they are valued and have the time to take care of one of their most priceless commodities, their time and health.
I have people who fall under me as well as a active duty military officer.
I realize that my success is also my employees success, that my people have lives outside of work and that there well-being and peace of mind is more important.
I have created extensive training schedules here on RDA that you can incorporate into your corporate wellness plans and will be creating and developing extensive walking, cardio and additional fitness plans to help more people create lasting change.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR TRAINING PLANS[amazon table=”34612″]
