Trapotsis - The Everyday Athlete: How to Balance Work, Family, and Fitness for Life

Copyright 2022 by Art Trapotsis

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Excerpts from Spark are used courtesy of the author.
Excerpts from Younger Next Year are used courtesy of the author.

Published by Carter Dome Press
www.carterdomepress.com

Edited and designed by Girl Friday Productions
www.girlfridayproductions.com

Cover design: Kathleen Lynch
Project management: Sara Spees Addicott
Editorial production: Abi Pollokoff
Image credits: cover iStock Photography/Vlad Plonsak

ISBN (hardcover): 979-8-9855776-0-0
ISBN (paperback): 979-8-9855776-1-7
ISBN (e-book): 979-8-9855776-2-4
ISBN (audiobook): 979-8-9855776-3-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022904834

To the Keep It Tight Cycling community

Im glued to the wheel six inches in front of my bike; it belongs to my friend, Dan. Twenty-four miles per hour, 156 beats per minute. Damn, this feels good! Behind me are three other riders in a tight paceline. Were in the last half of a warm and humid twenty-three-mile ride in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

After this ride is finished, I have to get the kids off to school and then attend a day of sales meetings. Im looking forward to coaching my seven-year-olds basketball practice in the evening, followed by a quick dinner with my family and then the usual bedtime routine with my children.

Life is good.

***

Everyone talks about work-life balance. Dozens of books and hundreds of articles have been written on this topic. From my experience, and from the interviews I conducted for this book, fitness is the key to achieving this balance. I want to take you on a journey into how people balance work, family, and fitness and share some insights and best practices on this important topic. In short, fitness needs to be placed on a nearly equal footing (not from a time perspective, but from a priority perspective) with work and family. Envision it as the third leg in the three-legged stool of life.

While some experts say that balance is the key to success and happiness, others say that balance is impossible. Indeed, balance comes and goes throughout life; sometimes work takes over our lives, sometimes its family, and sometimes training for an athletic event saps all your energy. My approach to feeling a greater sense of balance in life is simple: (1) take the long view and (2) incorporate fitness into your life.

Right off the bat you might be thinking, If only I had time. I know... I feel that way too, and I felt it even more when my kids were youngertheyre both teenagers now. But you probably do have the time, and I can help you identify those windows of opportunity. Anything is possible. You can think differently about your day, and you can think differently about fitness and physical activity.

We all know how important fitness is for our lives. Weve seen countless headlines on how regular exercise can make us healthier and lower our blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight while building strong muscles. The benefits are immeasurable and undeniable.

But fitness isnt just about being in good shapeit goes far beyond that into how it makes us feel in all parts of our lives. How? Fitness includes our physical and mental health; therefore, it affects everything from how we work at our jobs and interact with our friends and families to how we think and feel about ourselves. Fitness includes our moods and sleep patterns, how and what we eat, and how we get along with our spouses, kids, and bosses. When fitness is in harmony with everything else in our lives, we feel healthier and better in every possible way.

This image illustrates how work, family, and fitness exist together in an amorphous and fluid amoeba-like shape (i.e., your life). Notice that it is not a perfect circle. There will be times when the shape gets stretched a bit more in one direction (e.g., work deadlines are consuming your time) than the others. The point is that the other categories (fitness and family) never completely leave the structure but are always present. No matter how time-consuming work or family obligations become, you can always carve time out for yourself and fitness. If you do this, you will reap some or all of the benefits of living a balanced life.

So, if we know how important fitness benefits are to helping us live longer and happier, why is it so difficult for us to incorporate them into our lives? If fitness is so good for us, why does it constantly fall out of our routines? Whats missing? Quite simply, we dont give it the priority it deserves, nor do we realize its far-reaching effects on both our daily lives and our long-term health.

This book is about finding balance and nurturing and developing an athletic mindset. When we have balance in our lives, were able to devote the right amount of time to our work, our families, our friends, and our fitnesswhatever that may be for each individual at any given point in time. Those requirements will change, so its up to each of you to figure out when youre feeling out of balance and adjust accordingly. Just remember that prioritizing fitness and thinking like an athlete, no matter where you are in life, provides that pathway forward: balance requires fitness, and fitness leads to balance.

Keep this in mind: if youve had trouble making fitness a regular part of your life, or if youre not focusing on fitness at all right now, that doesnt mean youre faulty in some way. Far from it. The demands of our lives will always militate against our ability to make time for fitness. But there can be consequences when we dont make fitness a part of what we do during the course of the week. These consequences are far-reaching and can affect not just our long-term health but also our performance at work, how we communicate with our loved ones, and how we respond to the stressful situations that arise every day.

Indian yogi and author Sadhguru, founder of the nonprofit spiritual organization Isha Foundation, says, There is no such thing as work-life balanceit is all life. The balance has to be within you. In order to find balance, we have to want it and make time for it, even when our lives turn chaotic. This sense of balance is so important because it helps us find tranquility, both mentally and physically, when times get tough. In short, if you find and create the right balance between your work, your family, and your fitness, you will be able to take on most challenges that life throws at you.

We all struggle to incorporate fitness into our demanding livesits hard for me too. Why? Because were busy with a million thingsbuilding our careers, taking care of our families, trying to stay in touch with friends, keeping our marriages on track, and so forth. In the midst of all these imperatives, even trying to find thirty minutes for exercise can feel daunting.

But heres a secret: it is not only possible to live a balanced life; its necessary for your happiness.

Im an athlete myself, and also the founder and president of Keep It Tight Athletics, a nonprofit fitness-lifestyle organization based out of Boston. I engage with athletes at all levels and stages of their lives. I realized many years ago that some of them had figured out how to achieve this sense of balance, even when they appeared to have a full plate.