The GoalTribe Blog

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!

Have You Saved The World Yet Today?

GoalTribe’s mission is to have a deep impact on the state of the world by connecting millions of people to help each other improve their lives, their communities and the world. Please take a moment to do something good today by sharing this article, or GoalTribe.com, with your friends. The links below make it easy!

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From our experience with the thousands of goals on GoalTribe.com, and goals in general, we find that there are some categories of goals that are always popular. Here is our take on what the top 10 goals of all time are:

The Top 10 Goals

1. Lose weight
2. Begin a regular exercise habit
3. Eat Healthier
4. Find a job (or a better job)
5. Get out of debt
6. Become financially independent
7. Learning a new skill
8. Learn a new language
9. Go Traveling
10. Quit Smoking

Steps for Achieving Top 10 Goals

1. Write down the goal you want to achieve, be specific.
2. Now write a plan for how to achieve that goal. (Refer to Learn How to Do Absolutely Anything.)
3. Now set a date that you want to achieve that goal by.
4. Now schedule when you will do each of the steps on your plan.
5. Get one or more people to be your ‘support group’ or ‘accountability buddies’. These people can hold you accountable to take action,
6. help you come up with ideas, and celebrate your successes.
7. Take action right away!

To make it extremely easy to achieve your goals, we created GoalTribe.com the most advanced goal achievement social network on the web. GoalTribe takes you step-by-step through planning a goal, building motivation, getting a support group, getting reminder emails, and overcoming obstacles until you succeed.

Get started changing your life now!

Michael Jackson achieved extraordinary things in his life, and he was deeply committed to making the world a better place. Here are some powerful quotes of his that can inspire us to do the same.

My goal in life is to give to the world what I was lucky to receive: the ecstasy of divine union through my music and my dance.
- Michael Jackson

If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with. - Michael Jackson

In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. – Michael Jackson

The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.
- Michael Jackson

Children show me in their playful smiles the divine in everyone. This simple goodness shines straight from their hearts and only asks to be lived. – Michael Jackson

Let us dream of tomorrow where we can truly love from the soul, and know love as the ultimate truth at the heart of all creation. – Michael Jackson

We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
- Michael Jackson (from We Are the World)

If You’re thinkin’ of
Being my brother
It don’t matter if you’re
Black or white
- Michael Jackson (from Black or White)

I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
- Michael Jackson (from Man in the Mirror)

Billie Jean is not my lover! – Michael Jackson

Wanna be startin something? – Michael Jackson

Have any other favorite Michael Jackson quotes, lyrics, songs or memories? Share in the comments!

Michael put everything he could into giving to the world, and inspiring us to make a difference too. How are you going to make a difference? Maybe now is the time to pick at least one positive thing to do in Michael’s honor. Commit to volunteering once a week. Offer to maintain the lawn of the elderly person in your neighborhood. Start a children’s charity. Begin training for a charity race. Go green!

To make it as easy as possible for you to achieve your goals of improving your life, your community and the world, we built GoalTribe.com, the most advanced goal-achievement social network on the web. We help you kickoff your goal, build motivation, get an accountability buddy, get email reminders and overcome all obstacles until you succeed. Start now and make Michael proud!

The trick to exercising is finding activities that you love to do. To help you achieve that, I listed The 101 Most Creative Ways to Exercise in an earlier blog post. It had some of the most incredible, innovative and outlandish exercises you ever heard of. But then I realized that there are a huge number of more “normal” ways to exercise that are worth listing all in one place too. So now you have two huge  lists  help you find exercises you can really enjoy. Hope they help you finally get an exercise habit, or revitalize your existing routine!

101 Ways to Exercise

1. Jogging
2. Stair climbing
3. Mountain Biking
4. Cross Training
5. Swimming
6. Downhill Skiing
7. Snowboarding
8. Cross country skiing
9. Golfing (walk don’t cart)
10. Basketball
11. Soccer
12. Football
13. Lacrosse
14. Badminton
15. Water polo
16. Volleyball
17. Tennis
18. Shoot hoops
19. Yoga
20. Tai Bo
21. Tai Chi
22. Kick boxing
23. Aerobics
24. Bowling
25. Martial Arts
26. Learn Self Defense
27. Race Walking
28. Marathoning
29. Half Marathons
30. Ultra Marathons
31. Triathlons, biathlons, decathlons, pentathlons
32. Mini-triathlons
33. Exercise biking
34. Rowing machines
35. Skiing machines
36. Doing step exercises
37. Stability balls
38. Joining an adult athletic team
39. Interval Training
40. Fencing
41. Surfing
42. Boogie boarding
43. Snorkeling
44. Scuba Diving
45. Baseball
46. Softball
47. Cricket
48. Wakeboarding
49. Windsurfing
50. Mountain Biking
51. Table Tennis
52. Hiking
53. Backpacking
54. Walking the dog
55. Horseback riding
56. Water aerobics
57. Rollerblading
58. Roller skating
59. Playing Frisbee
60. Skateboarding
61. Jump roping
62. Treadmilling
63. Stationary biking
64. Stair climbing machine
65. TV exercise shows
66. Exercise videos
67. Parking on the far side of the parking lot
68. Step exercises
69. Canoeing
70. Rock Climbing
71. Beach Volleyball
72. Mall walking
73. Jumping Jacks
74. Pogo Sticking
75. Scooter riding (unmotorized obviously!)
76. Cleaning
77. Aikido
78. Judo
79. Jujutsu
80. Wrestling
81. Kung Fu
82. Fencing
83. Boxing
84. Kung fu
85. Capoeira
86. Karate
87. Kickboxing
88. Taekwondo
89. Rugby
90. Gymnastics
91. Hockey
92. White Water Rafting
93. Badminton
94. Racquetball
95. Squash
96. Hurdles
97. Track and Field
98. Sailing
99. Telemark Skiing
100. Race Walking
101. Plain-old WALKING (probably the best workout for most people)

Curious how to get involved in some of these sports? Check out the post: “25 Ways to Learn How To Do Anything“.

Now pick a couple of these exercises that seem intriguing and set a goal on GoalTribe to investigate them and try them out! GoalTribe guides you step-by-step through making a goal plan, building motivation, getting accountability partners online, tracking your progress and overcoming all obstacles to success.

If you have any exercise ideas we left out, please add them in the comments.

Other related posts you may find useful:

10 Simple Ways to Exercise
I Have to Lose This Weight!
5 Ways to Focus on Your Exercise

If you found this post useful, please use the options below to share with others.

One of the exciting things about the web is finding new optimistic, ambitious projects that are out to really make a big difference in the world. (Like we’re trying to do with GoalTribe.)

One such project we just discovered is The Better Project, which is a site that allows anyone to enter something they would like to make better, and lets people start suggesting and voting on improvements. People are discussing improvements in democracy, New York City, Facebook and lots of other things.

We’ve also using it to get your input on improving GoalTribe. Please visit, suggest improvements, vote, and discuss so we can become the most powerful tool  possible for connecting you to the support you need to improve your life, your commmunity and the world!

There is a dangerous myth that pervades our culture that leads a large number of people into misery. It’s probably even causing you stress right now. It’s one that I’ve only recently found my way out of. This fallacy is so basic to our way of thinking that we often don’t even question it, although I’ve traveled through many countries where people widely believe the exact opposite (and are much happier as a result).

The myth:

You can take complete control of your life,
all you have to do is set goals and take massive action until you achieve them.

The truth:

You can achieve incredible things in your life,
And you can be profoundly joyful,
But there will always be more things out of your control than in your control
- and that’s just perfect!

Each thing you try to control, each thing that you prefer to be one way or the other, each ‘rule’ you have for how life should be, consumes a little more of your power, attention and happiness. Every time you get upset that someone breaks one of your rules of behavior, or every time you’re annoyed that a picture is hanging a little crooked, it takes some of the personal attention you could be putting toward gaining financial independence, building a great relationship with your kids, or making a big difference in your community.

In any given situation, the person who is most flexible (has the fewest rules and attachments to what should happen) is the most powerful. Many self improvement programs begin by encouraging you to write an exhaustive list of all the things you want in all areas of your life, and to be very particular about the outcome you want - “what make, model and color of car?” It’s OK to know the ideal outcome, but if that’s the only outcome that will make you happy, you could achieve amazing things in your life and still feel like a failure. Your definition of success is so specific that you’ve made it much harder than necessary to achieve. After many years of being frustrated trying to control all aspects of my life, I finally realized that by thinking that way, you really miss how magnificent most of life already is. You miss out on a lot of gratitude, which is a big key to happiness.

It’s actually possible to be profoundly content with the world just as it is, while still passionately, vigerously pursuing those goals which are important to you (even becoming rich or changing the world). The principal can be tough to wrap your brain around. It’s really the crux of the difference between Eastern and Western philosophy. I came to understand it over time through a variety of sources including the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, and Eckhart Tolle. But I finally really got it through Wayne Dyers incredible book: Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.

Bottom Line: Goals are an important part of a fulfilled life, but so are flexibility, peace, and contentment.

Pursue your wildest dreams! But begin from a place of deep joy and happiness with the world around you.

8 Keys to Loving Your Life Right Now

1. You can have anything that you want, but you can’t have everything that you want. Concentrate your power on changing those things that matter most to you. Relax about everything else. Appreciate them as they are.

2. On any given day trillions of things go right, and only a small fraction go ‘wrong’. Trillions of sun beams fall upon the earth where billions of plants happily turn them into energy to prepare oxygen, tens of thousands of  people around the world do their jobs to take the plants and other materials to prepare food, clothes and other things for you. They test, write directions, package and ship goods thousands of miles, put them on shelves and follow the rules of commerce and money exchange to let you buy them. As you travel to the store, most of the people you pass follow the rules to give you a safe journey. And when you sit down to enjoy a meal, trillions of cells in your body work together to allow you to move the food to your mouth, chew, enjoy the taste, smell the aromas, and process the food into all the new cells your body needs. You can go on for hours listing all the intricate details which worked well. So why get obsessed about the few things that didn’t go exactly like you wanted them to today!?

3. Practice Non-Attachment. This basic principal of Buddhism used to seem like giving up on life to me. Then I finally came to understand it in a much more practical sense. You can have high intention for a goal, but be non-attached to the outcome. In other words, you’re emotions aren’t tied to what happens. You won’t be devastated if you don’t get the exact outcome you were after.

4. Don’t Judge. Basically, this means stop bothering yourself with how other people are behaving. The fact is there are almost no agreed upon, universal rules about how people should act these days. So you can’t constantly be outraged that people aren’t following your specific set of rules! Especially if you’ve never communicated those rules to that person. It’s just wasted energy. Let people follow their own path in life. Instead be curious about how they view the world, be entertained by the color they add to your experience, be thankful you’ve got something different and interesting to observe. Give up controlling others, send love instead, and find your life becoming  more peaceful.

5. Surrender to what is. The worst suffering comes when you just refuse to accept the world as it is. It’s amazing how often we do this. Just surrender to the world as it is, then begin to work to make things better.

6. Imperfection is perfect. Image a book that began “And they lived happily ever after.” Imagine a movie where the lead actor has a perfect life and nothing bad ever happens. You’d be bored stiff! All the challenges and ‘imperfections’ in life are actually what make life worth living. If life were ‘perfect’ we’d have to invent problems just to entertain ourselves. Enjoy and celebrate the challenges, imperfections and annoyances that come up. If you think “we’ll laugh at this some day”, laugh at it now! Look at challenges as entertaining adventures, a heroes’ quest that will teach you something about yourself and life.

7. Don’t sweat the small stuff - It’s all small stuff. The whole mental game here, is expanding what you consider ’small stuff’.

8. In my world, nothing ever goes wrong - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. This is the highest level of understanding that the previous 7 points build up to. It leads to an incredible sense of peace in life, and frees enormous energy to passionately pursue your dreams and goals. Just imagine for a moment what if nothing really ever DOES go wrong. What if all the things that seem to be wrong are just opportunities to pit your creativity and passion against to grow from the challenge? What if it’s supposed to happen like that and it’s perfect that way?

Some of this will make sense to you, and some of it might seem like complete nonsense. Take what you can and let the rest just float over your mind and see if it makes sense some time in the future.

If you have any experiences or thoughts to add, please comment below!

This post was inspired by the post: How to Let Go of Control on zenhabits.com

If you found this post interesting, please pass it along with the “share” link below.

Every goal system, including GoalTribe, tells you to sit down and plan out the steps, the actions, to achieving your goal. That’s usually when the goal-planner (that’s you) starts sweating. You start thinking, “I have no idea how to achieve this goal or else I would have done it already!” And yo know what? You’re right! You DON’T know how to achieve the goal. Nobody can predict the future. You don’t know what obstacles you’re going to run into, what resources you’re going to need, how much effort it’s going to take, how much money you’ll need. Any good goal process begins with good quality time writing down a goal plan that totally sucks.

STAY CALM!  That’s exactly how things are supposed to be. Your plan will wrong. It will need revision. You might have to throw it out completely and start again. It might just say “Step one: Go find someone who can help me with step 1.” That’s ok!

What’s important is that you take some time to take your best guesstimation of what you steps you have to take to succeed. It’s important to take some time to think. Don’t get hung up on all the things that you don’t know or could go wrong. Sometimes you don’t even need to plan more than your first few steps. Spend the appropriate amount of time planning, then GET INTO ACTION.

Once you start taking action, you’ll learn a lot more about what’s involved. And then you can feel free to start adjusting your plan based on what you’re learning. And you don’t have to feel bad that your goal plan sucked. It’s serving it’s purpose in all it’s wretched imperfection. It’s forcing you to think ahead and process what you DO know. And it doesn’t take a perfect plan to do that.

Sucky Goal plan’s RULE!

My new favorite self improvement book: The Success Principles, by Jack Canfield. It has the nuts and bolts of success laid out in a straight forward way. Powerful!

What if you started each morning with the question: “What will be the legacy of this day?”

Get bite-sized nuggets of life-changing wisdom and change-provoking ideas by following GoalTribe on Twitter: http://twitter.com/GoalTribe