Thoughts of weymey

Exercise is more important than mu career

I was thinking this morning..... about exercise and career. Where I sat at the Teslim Balogun Stadium yesterday participating in the closing ceremony of the 17th Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Games (NOGIG), I wondered how so many professionals could leave their job and career for a week to participate in sports that gives them nothing more than ceremonial medals. Moreso, the medals won will not count during the end year appraisal. 'Are the participants really serious about their careers?' I had soliloquized. 'Or are they a group with NFA (No Future Ambition)?'

 

As I placed exercise/sports and career on a mental scale, to see which weighs more, I recalled an article I read in Time Magazine titled 'Why exercise is more important than my career' by one Joshua Steimle, an entrepreneur. But how can exercise be more important than my career? 'OYO (on your own) for him,' I concluded with finality. Will exercise put food on my table? Will exercise pay my children school fees? Too many questions popping up to justify my parochial line of thought.

 

But then, just a little patient reflection exposed my folly. Think about it. It is prevalent attitude amongst professionals that career or business comes first and that it trumps everything else including family, friends and health. But is that really true? I think not. Also, could exercise be more important than my career? Maybe that's why Cyril Ramaphosa, the current president of South Africa, was seen taking his usual early morning walk/jog along Cape Town's Sea Point Promenade in spite of the state of the nation address and the looming budget speech he had to give on the day of his inauguration. If he was a Nigerian politician, he probably will be in meetings all night and day with party members and associates strategizing on how to share potential available positions.

 

Maybe exercise should be important than my career. Vladimir Putin, the Russian President became a master in martial arts and has been actively competing in sports such as hockey, badminton and horse riding since 1966, while Tony Abbot, the Prime Minister of Australia until 2015 competed in an Iron Man triathlon, he runs a marathon and regularly cycles up and down hills near Parliament House four to six times around dawn. Yet the only information available of a Nigeria past or present president committed to exercise or sports is OBJ and his love for 'Ayo' (the African game board.)

 

Should exercise be more important than my career? Dick Costolo, the CEO of Twitter from 2010 to 2015 bikes and does grueling CrossFit workouts and he tweets more about fitness than tech or business. Imagine, while the CEO of Twitter was focusing on exercise, many CEOs are focusing on Twitter.

 

Truth is, exercise is more important than your career and therefore must be come first. If exercise stops, then your health goes downhill. With loss of physical health, your productivity t work goes down. You become depressed and lose the motivation to do the things that make your business or career successful.

 

For me, I have decided to exercise. If I can't find time to go play badminton at the club, I will skip and jog-on-the-spot in my house. And if time will not allow me, I will box in the shower. Whatever it takes, I must exercise because 1st Tim 4:8 says 'For bodily exercise profits little.' We need that little to achieve great things.

 

Happy Sunday.

 

....Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey.