Last 10 years, I trained for 2,340 hours.

Here is how.

Another Sunday, another running session for my journal.

Just as I start to make a note in my journal, I realize that I’ll run out of pages soon. Out of curiosity, I think: “How many journals have I actually completed?” I go to my drawer, open it, and find 12 journals full of training sessions. Wait! 12 journals? How many sessions are these? I take out the first book, which dates back to 2009 when a friend of mine, a physiotherapist, wrote down my first training plan. It was a 5-day split, entirely focused on bodybuilding — not so smart given the fact that I was a complete gym novice at that time. However, for the next 15 minutes, I skim through the books, looking at various training cycles and sporting sessions ranging from weightlifting to long-distance running.

I calculated: I ended up doing 2,340 hours of sport over the last 10 years.

Looking through the journals, it came to my mind that each training session took me approximately 1.5 hours. On average, I do 3 sessions per week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Some session is surely not documented. Summing up, this means that I did 234 hours of sport per year, and 2,340 over the past 10 years. In other words: Every week, I spent half a working day doing sports — or almost 5% of my waking life. That is nothing compared to Triathlon World champion Jan Frodeno who trains 1,000 hours a year, but hey: It’s not too bad for working full-time, having a social life, and other areas of interest (like writing and coaching).

How did I spend 5% of my waking life doing sports?

I could tell you a lot about setting priorities and scheduling. It is super important to make time for sports. But time management is not the reason I managed to start and stick with an active lifestyle.

More critical is overcoming the barrier to pick up a sport. The moments where you can’t be bothered. When you are injured, and you need to fight your way back into the routine. When it is cold outside, you planned a running session, but you ask yourself: Why am I doing this? In short: The tricky part, is to manage yourself. How did I learn it?

The secret is: I wasn’t alone.

The first sport I got into was running. In high school, I was lazy and fat but had a good friend who was insanely fit — the complete opposite of me. He literally dragged me to run through the forest at 6 a.m before school. No way I would have done this on my own. Once I was seeing benefits and lost weight, motivation wasn’t the issue anymore. Now it was about training more deliberate and making progress. Luckily, again, I had a friend. My friend, the physiotherapist, explained to me how to plan a training cycle and how to set goals. He also sparked my interested in learning more about physiology and helping others to become fit.

Fast-forward some years: During my studies, I had plenty of time, which resulted in me doing Triathlons — but guess what: Not alone. My worst discipline, swimming, only got better because I joined a local team to learn swimming. My struggle with swimming was not necessarily the technique, but rather the fact that I didn’t go to the pool regularly. But now I had a fixed appointment, and it made me stick to it. Not going to swimming on Tuesday resulted in nagging WhatsApp messages of my friends.

I could tell you way more anecdotes how my friends motivated and pushed me, but I guess you already understand why I am so active:

I have people who push and motivate me.

From a psychological side, it makes total sense. Humans are gregarious animals. Or as Jim Rohn said: “You are the average of the persons you spend the most time with” — all your friends are lazy, fat and never do sports? Well, no surprise, you are too (sorry, but it is the truth).

In my professional life, I try to surround myself with people who are driven. The same holds true for my private life, where I hang around with people who enjoy doing sports. I want to be the dumbest person in the room and the most unfit person in the group. If I am that person, I know that I have to work harder. This drives me and keeps me going.

The best thing, though, is: Most of these people are my closest friends by now. We went to competitions, vacations, and share experience worth memorizing.

So here is my tip:

Whether you want to start or follow through with your fitness routine: I suggest you find a team, too.

It’s that simple.

Surround yourself with people who have a genuine interest in sports. Choose your friends wisely and make sure they have a positive attitude.

Having such a group is hugely beneficial:

• You have someone who holds you accountable.
• You keep going because you don’t want to look like a loser or quitter.
• You learn a lot
• You share incredible experiences.

The tricky part, though is:

How do you find these people?

The hardest thing is to build this group. You don’t know how to, and that is totally fine. Most likely, you are stuck in your routine. Going out to the street and asking random people, “Hey, do you want to be my fitness buddy?” probably won’t yield the best result.

The good thing is: you don’t need to see these people in real life. It can be virtual — here is the solution:

Let me be your training buddy.

If you want to reach your goals, get in better shape, or pick up a sport and stick with it and stay motivated, just ping me on >>>WhatsApp<<<.

I’d be happy to be your fitness buddy. On a daily basis, I motivate you and help you to build a routine you stick with. On top, you get access to a bunch of like-minded people. And the best thing: it’s for free.

Whether you want to lose weight or run your first Marathon: this is your chance to surround yourself with people who have actually done it. Benefit from their experience and break your personal barrier — as I just did by running my first Marathon.

If you like this article, please smash that clap button. Not once, but up to 50 times! Share this post with your friends. But most importantly:

Don’t stop until you’re proud!