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Having trouble finding time to exercise? Time to get creative! Here are 30 creative times to squeeze in a workout:

30 Creative Times to Exercise

1. First thing in the morning (Alarm clock workout)
2. A half hour before you normally get up
3. At sunrise
4. Walking your kids to school
5. On the bus / train
6. While commuting (walk, bike, or park farther from the building)
7. During meetings (“Mind if we walk while we talk? It’s beautiful outside.”)
8. At your desk (isometrics or standing while working or one of these: link1 link2 link3)
9. During lunch hour
10. During an eclipse
11. While you’re on the phone (consider cordless, mobile, headset, speaker phone or blue tooth)
12. While waiting for printing, booting, downloading etc.
13. Coffee break or smoke break
14. Immediately after work
15. While watching TV (or instead of, consider walking in place or a treadmill)
16. During commercial breaks (crunches, pushups)
17. While playing with the kids
18. While reading
19. While cooking
20. After dinner
21. During sunset
22. Meeting friends (for a walk instead of lunch)
23. While shopping (keep moving, try window shopping)
24. On a date (go for a hike or a bike)
25. While brushing your teeth (squats anyone?)
26. In the shower (wash vigorously!)
27. In the middle of the night
28. During a meteor shower
29. During a full moon
30. Isometrically flex and contract muscles anytime!

What are some other creative ways to find time to exercise? Please share in the comments!

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Standing in line bored out of your mind is a huge waste of your precious time on Earth. It’s one of the least efficient features of modern life, one that I think we’ll eventually do away with. But it’s only a waste if you stand their bored. In reality, it’s a precious gift of time during which you can do something profound… something deep and meaningful… something that can even blow your mind. Here are 6 ways to make your time standing in line into something profound:

6 Ways to Blow your Mind when you’re Stuck in Line

1. Become Joyful: Research in the new field of positive psychology has clearly established that your happiness has very little to do with the conditions of your life. Right now, somewhere there is someone in worse health with less money than you, standing in a long line under a blistering sun – and they’re happier than you are! They’re joyful simply because they have better mental habits than you. Standing in line is a perfect opportunity to practice being happy for no reason at all. Spend the time counting your blessings. What’s great about your life? What are you looking forward too? What are some of your best memories? Who do you love? What are you proud of? How do those thoughts make you feel?

2. Expand Your Mind: One of the profound things about being human is our capacity to keep learning. And there are oceans of mind-blowing things to study about this great, big, beautiful universe we live in. I frequently keep a small book in the car that I can slip in my back pocket to pull out if I’m stuck standing somewhere with nothing to do. Read up on the subjects that fascinate you. Read mind-expanding books on science, philosophy or spirituality. Read personal development books. Read the classics. Read executive summaries of books. (More ideas at 5 Ways to Learn on the Go)

3. Meditate: There are many ways to meditate. One way that can be done in line is: Take a deep breath. Relax your body (stand or sit or whatever). Keep your eyes open. Now just breathe in a relaxed, easy way and notice the things happening around you. For every thing you notice, just say “I smell someone’s perfume. I see someone’s red dress. I feel my shoes…” Just notice. Don’t judge. Don’t think. Don’t process. If you notice active thoughts, just gently go back to the exercise. How does that feel? Don’t worry, if you need to become active, you can snap out of it instantly. (Although with renewed sense of peacefulness.)

4. Breath in Serenity: Standing in line is a good time to do breathing exercises. Breathing purifies, energizes and leads to a nice, serene state of mind. Just do this 10 times: breath all the way out, squeezing your belly to make sure your lungs are really empty. Then take a long deep breath in. Puff out our belly, then your chest. When you think you’re full, sniff in through your nose once or twice. Hold for a few moments (as comfortable), then slowly exhale. Only do as many repetitions as is comfortable. You’ll probably need to build up to ten. Then enjoy the serenity that follows. Notice how your body feels.

5. Become One: Now we’re getting into some really mind-blowing concepts. Standing in line is an opportunity to do exercises to build your feelings of oneness with all things. Consider one of the people standing in line with you. This person is a manifestation of the same profound forces that crafted the starry sky; the same forces that make people look into each other’s eyes and fall in love; the same forces that blanket the springtime in flowers, greenery and birdsong. This person’s consciousness is one of the most profound mysteries of the universe. How could you show this person some kindness? Compliment them. Ask them about their life. Listen deeply, with respect. Each person has something to teach you. Each person is an opportunity to connect more deeply with life.

6. Transcend: “To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.” – Emerson. There are many paths to the enlightened state of being, where you experience the profound nature of all reality and extraordinary bliss and lightness at all times. The more mundane the situation, the better it is for practicing this realization and the feelings that accompany it. Stand in line and think about the trillions of atoms all around you spinning and vibrating, doing their part to create this absolutely unique, once-in-an-eternity moment for you to experience. Most of these atoms were forged in the extraordinary conditions of a star, they are stardust. You are stardust. Imagine everything sparkling and shining. Everything is perfect in this moment.

So vow right now to never waste time in line again. Pick one or more of the practices above to transform your “waiting time” into “awakening time”. What steps could you take to be prepared for that?

You could also set a goal on GoalTribe to commit to not wasting another minute in line for the next 30 days to see how it impacts your life.

Do you have some other suggestions for making waiting time productive? Please share in the comments.

For more productivity strategies see: “Stop Wasting Time” on The Simple Dollar blog.

If you enjoyed this article, please support us in our mission to change people’s lives and change the world by sharing this article with the links below.

Thank you for reading!
Robin

Creativity can save the world. Creativity can save your life. Yes it’s that powerful.

To learn to harness your creativity, check out my guest post on The Change Blog: “How to Unleash Your Creative Brilliance”

Enjoy!
Robin

If you don’t exercise regularly, it’s probably because you haven’t found an exercise that you truly enjoy. That’s partly because we keep hearing about the same old types of exercise over and over again, but there are hundreds of ways to get regular exercise. Here are 101 different creative exercises that will suit every type of circumstance and personality.

Try the 30 Day Fitness Challenge Facebook App
The easy way to stay motivated to exercise!

Take a look through the list and pick several exercises that sound like fun. Consider whether you prefer to be indoors or outdoors, like to engage your mind or just bliss out, be social or be solitary, and any other insights you have about what you enjoy doing.

(Also see the 101 More Classic Ways to Exercise.)

1. Juggling
2. Stunt pogo sticking
3. Tree climbing
4. Mountainboarding
5. Unicycling
6. Practicing Jedi Skills (the Jedi Workout)
7. Walking on water
8. Picking up litter around the neighborhood, town, park or beach
9. Playing video games (Wii, Dance Dance Revolution, etc.)
10. Fruit picking (not too slowly!)
11. Volunteering (Try fitness oriented charities)
12. Fire juggling
13. Drumming
14. Bouncing with Spring-Soled Shoes
15. Sex
16. Ropeless jump roping
17. Sit and Be Fit
18. Kite Surfing
19.  virtual horseback riding (or iGalloping)
20. In the nude
21. Pogo sticking
22. Parkour
23. Tricking

24. Punching and kicking your way through your favorite action flick
25. Dancing your way through your favorite musical
26. Hula Hooping
27. Playing tag
28. Joggling (juggling while jogging)
29. Roller Hockey
30. Roller Derby
31. Leaf pile diving (includes raking!)
32. Gladiator Workout
33. Finding online workout videos
34. Wearing weight loss shoes (or sandels)
35. Playing capture the flag
36. Water balloon fights
37. Snowshoeing
38. Bicycling on Water
39. Squirt Gun Fights
40. Pillow Fights
41. Underwater Rugby
42. Underwater Soccer
43. Synchronized swimming
44. Hop scotching
45. Riverboarding
46. Marco polo
47. Slip and slide
48. Playing touch football
49. Snow kiting
50. Giving the dog a bath

51. Miniature Golfing
52. Baton Twirling
53. Sledding
54. Hacky Sacking
55. Making snowmen (BIG ones!)

56. Building snow forts
57. Walking in place while watching tv
58. Boot Camp Workout
59. Swimming with Porpoise Flipper
60. Learn Self Defense
61. Geocaching
62. Orienteering
63. Window Washing
64. Cleaning the garage
65. Clean the attic
66. Landscape the yard
67. Doing laundry
68. Trampolining
69. Inflatable jumping castles
70. Swinging
71. Playing Twister
72. Cheerleading
73. Canyoning
74. Bouldering
75. Snowkiting
76. Skysurfing
77. Belly dancing
78. Circus Skills (Look for circus schools)
79. Gardening
80. Riding a Scooter

81. Clubbing
82. Walkling (juggling while walking)
83. Poll dancing
84. Street luge
85. Arm wrestling
86. Stability balls
87. Rock Climbing
88. Sandboarding
89. Sea Kayaking
90. Ice climbing
91. Exotic Dancing (link 2)
92. Laughing (laughter yoga)
93. Karaoke (with a lot of dramatic dance moves!)
94. Dodgeball
95. Frisbee Golf
96. Ultimate Frisbee
97. Long boarding
98. Car washing for charity
99. Beach combing
100. Sand dune climbing
101. Samurai Sword Classes

Even More Creative Ways to Workout

1. Hot tub treadmilling
2. Body Juggling
3. Wave Jumping
4. Stationary bike racing
5. Extreme clowning
6. Composting
7. Mountain Unicycling
8. Extreme clowning
9. Reality TV Workout
10. Exercise in pill form

11. Exercising on art
12. Punk Rock Yoga
13. Equestrian Yoga
14. Tangolates
15. Unicycle Trials
16. Mongolian Wrestling
17. Sumo
18. Laser Tag
19. Paint Ball
20. Airsoft
21. Outrigger Canoeing
22. Creeking
23. Surf Kayaking
24. Dragon Boat Racing
25. Bicycle Polo
26. Ice Yachting
27. Land Sailing
28. Free Running

Now pick some of these exercises that sound fun and try them! Or dream up your own exercises now that you’ve got the idea.

Do you need help staying motivated to exercise? Motivation is our specialty! We took the top motivational strategies proven in clinical research and built them into our new GoalTribe Facebook app: The 30 Day Fitness Challenge. Get help from your friends to exercise 3 times a week for 30 days! Please give it a try and let us know what you think!

Got some other exercise ideas? Please share in the comments!

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To make the most of your minds creativity and problem solving abilities, you need to direct it to work on the right issues. The easiest way to do that is to ask powerful questions for your mind to work on. An excellent post exploring many ways to use questions can be found on the LiteMind blog: 10 Best Ways to Harness the Power of Questions

Do you have a big, juicy goal – but have absolutely no idea how to achieve it? Don’t know what steps to take? Need some special knowledge? You’re in luck! Never, in the history of the world has it been easier to learn how to do something.

Knowledge is absolutely never a reason not to keep driving toward your goal. In fact it’s very common for a goal plan to begin with nothing more than a period of research and exploration. Thomas Edison had no idea how to make a light bulb when he set out to do it. Sir Edmund Hillary had a lot to learn before he set out to climb Mount Everest!

The first step is to get excited and get curious! You’re about to expand your personal power. You’re about to solve a mystery. You’re about to learn how to do something you were totally incapable of doing before. How cool is that!?

Here’s What to Do
If you’ve got a goal, with no ideas for an action plan. Just start your plan with one or more of the following actions (you can flesh out the rest of your goal plan later.)

1. Visit the Library – And ask the librarian how to learn what you need.
2. Consider college or university libraries
3. Consider big city libraries
4. Consider specialized libraries from trade organizations or other groups
5. Search the Internet: try google.com
6. Check HowTo Sites: Try eHow.com , wikiHow.com, or howtodothings.com, LoveToKnow.com, or ExpertVillage.com
7. Ask for help on the Internet: Try answers.yahoo.com or Answerbag.com
8. Ask Your Network –“Who might know a little bit more than I do about how to do this?”
9. Who might know someone who knows someone who knows how to do this?
10. Keep asking each person if they know the right person to talk to and within a couple steps you’ll be talking to an expert
11. Don’t be afraid to approach people you haven’t talked to in years, or barely know. Just ask. Nothing bad can happen.
12. LinkedIn.com – The top professional networking site. Once you’re on and connected to your professional network, you can post questions to be answered.
13. Leverage Social Networks – Post your question on Facebook, MySpace, Hi5.com or whatever other network you’re a part of.
14. Visit the Bookstore – Bookstores aren’t just for buying books. They’re great for researching too. Ask for help finding the right section.
15. Browse multiple books to expand your knowledge. Ask for help searching all books in print. If you find a book that’s perfect, consider buying it – or maybe go get it at the library.
16. Ask a College or University professor – Ask friends for an introduction, call the institution and ask to be referred to the right person, or find professors by their website.
17. Ask Experts – via email, phone or take them to lunch. Don’t be afraid to ask!
18. Contact an Author – email an author with your questions, they may answer.
19. Take a Class or Two –Check community colleges, adult education, or universities for classes.
20. Take an Online Class – Many universities are offering accredited classes online now.
21. Forums – The web is filled with specialized forums on all kinds of topics. Find the right one for you at: directory.big-boards.com, or forumdirectory.freeforums.org. Then first search to see if someone has already answered a question similar to yours. If not, then feel free to post the question for the community to answer. Check back in a few days to see if you received a reply.
22. Hire research help: These days you can hire someone to look things up for you online. Try shorttask.com or elance.com
23. Ask 10 People in Next Hour: Just get on the phone and start calling people at random and ask them what steps they would do to try to achieve your goal.
24. Read a Children’s Book: If the subject you’re trying to learn seems really really difficult, try reading an explanation that is meant for young adults. It could be a how to book, a text book or a children’s encyclopedia or a children’s website. This can often give you the basics of a difficult subject to help you step up to more complex explanations.
25. Ask a Kid: These days, especially when it comes to technology or emerging culture, young people often are more knowledgable than adults. Consider them part of your knowledge network and don’t be too proud to ask them to tutor you.

A couple of other great resources:

How to Learn (Almost) Anything - The Litemind Blog
Smash Fear, Learn Anything - TED Talk by Tim Ferris (I HIGHLY Recommend TED Talks.)

You’ve got a goal. Now begin the learning phase. Be courageous. Keep trying. You can learn anything!

What are some ways you’ve figured out how to do something?

Do you have a story of going from ignorance to mastery by hunting down the right knowledge? Please tell us about it in the comments.

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When you plan a goal, or begin any project that is likely to spin out of control, don’t just decide what you DO. Also decide what you are committed to NOT doing. What are your likely time-wasters? How do you let projects get too complex? Where are you likely to spend too much time on details that don’t matter? For example, does that internal document really need to be SO perfectly formatted and proofread? Too clean your house for the party, do you really need to reorganize the closet no-one will see? Just say NO and get things done in time and without stress.

Some useful blog posts on this subject:

Overcoming Perfectionism Paralysis - by Coach Natalie Gahrmann
Don’t Have Time for Goals? Simplify Your Commitments - The Cheerful Living Blog