Hi runner peeps - my story for today is about mortgage equity, training, and how you treat your body. I swam this morning w/ my buddy James, who runs a mortgage origination/refinance company (one which I highly recommend, btw). I thought about my refi w/ James last year and the interesting correlations to my recent fitness the past several months. Perhaps this might be a useful analogy to you.
First, let's clarify a few definitions:
1) Consider your body to be a house which you own. It's a strategic investment to you, one which you tend, nurture and [hopefully] improve in value throughout your life. You do this despite the inevitable deterioration of materials / construction of your "house" due to aging.
2) Consider the daily training/fitness which you do to be a mortgage payment to your body, your "house". Your training is how you tend and nurture your house. The ways you make it strong, long-lasting and fit. Extending my analogy, consider this mortgage to be a unlimited fixed note. It isn't a 30yr fixed, 45yr or even 70yr. This note lasts your entire life. Don't get too ruffled about that duration -- afterall, consider the 70+ yrs ahead in which you'll enjoy your house! The "payments" you make each day go to pay down the mortgage... the longer you pay, your payments systematically pay down a slightly higher and higher amt of principal. This means that the more frequently you workout, the more effective your workouts are to paying down your principal.
Here's where my story begins....
My 2011 thus far has been a whirlwind in my career. Unprecendented work volumes, high stress, tight deadlines. As result, many things have eroded -- my diet has fallen into a tank and my workouts are hit/miss. Mostly miss, few hits in fact. I've gained several lbs, lost much cardio capacity and core conditioning. My "house" is a mess. Ugh. Now, to be clear over the past 40 yrs, I proudly made daily payments to my own "house". Heck, I would often make double payments : ) Loved it, and my house reflected that care. Very proud. However, during the past several months, I haven't been paying my mortgage. Instead, I've been pulling equity from my house. What's that mean? I've been relying on and consuming the strong value which I built into my house over the many years of daily mortgage payments made. Don't confuse this to be a loan. My consumption has eroded equity. A loan would be a temporary exchange of value, with an agreement and means to repay principal plus some interest. Deducting equity means lowering value [quality]. No agreement there -- just take, take take. Yep, that's the crux...by deducting equity, I've lowered the quality/durability/vitality of my house. It's still my house, but it surely isn't as nice a house as it used to be. Use whatever analogy you want -- it's clear I have been lowering its value. Now, I could get by for several months with a rotten diet and few workouts because my house was in OK shape. Not good shape and certainly not great shape. Just OK shape. However, following that strategy for months and months has clear consequences: the sturdy foundation and walls of my house became thin veneer. Pliable, prone to damage [injury] with an accelerated deterioration schedule. What to do? I could pout, seek blame, or feel grumpy. I could mutter and grouse about, and make excuses. I could find another job. I could punt workouts altogether, eat more ho-hos and become a duplex. Or, I could take action.
So, what to do? Time to refi!
So, what's a "house" refi look like? Here's what I did:
a) chart out my next 4mos of wellness goals. Define and prioritize those w/ specific, measurable and reasonable targets. I did that.
b) create a training plan that's achievable yet challenging, and maps directly to delivering the targets over time. I created one.
c) establish smart diet guidelines -- and follow them. I used foodiary.com to make one, however many great choices exist.
d) establish training partners. To me, that's the MWF swim workouts. Today, I attended my first swim workout in 5mos.
Why do I share this story? Maybe you'll find the analogy useful. Maybe, if you've also had a demanding period in your life as I have, you can consider this thinking about how to get your fitness/wellness back on track. I hope you leverage the incredible network of our running community -- it'll help to make your own daily mortgage payments. To make your own "house" strong : )
Happy running.
Jeffries
No comments:
Post a Comment