AP 0804: I Am a Young Parent. How Do I Find Time to Exercise as a Parent?

AskPat 804 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, everybody. What's up? Welcome to Episode 804 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week, but before we get to that, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks.

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In less than 30 seconds, you can create a very professional looking invoice that you could send out to anybody that you bill, and you can even keep track of who opens those invoices or not for follow-up purposes. I highly recommend you check them out. They've been just an amazing tool in my arsenal here, while creating my online business. Head on over to FreshBooks.com/AskPat. You can check them out for 30 days for free. 30-day free trial. Go to freshbooks.com/askpat and make sure you enter, “Ask Pat” in the How Did You Hear About Us section.

Now here's today's question from Dave.

David: Hi, Pat. My name is Dave Laidlaw at CatholicProTools.com. I follow you on Snapchat and I was just curious—I see you playing basketball out at like 4:45 in the morning, and my question is how do you do it with two kids? I have a three-month-old and a 19-month-old, and night sleeping isn't the most reliable. Me and my wife both work, so we help each other out. I guess that's my biggest question, is just how do you do it? What's your biggest tip for a young dad, as well, and getting up early to stay active, get your work done, whatnot, so thanks for answering my question, Pat. I'll talk to you later. Bye.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Dave. Thank you so much for the question. Congratulations on the newborn and also your 19-month-old. Obviously, I think, having a family is one of the most beautiful things. It's, for me, one of the most motivating things, as well, and I'm sure it motivates you, seeing those kids every day, wanting to get more stuff done, but also wanting to obviously stay healthy and stay active. To be honest, it's a very difficult thing to do. Especially when you have super-young kids like that. I wasn't able to play basketball at four in the morning and five in the morning until my kids started to get much older.

My kids now, at the time of this recording, are seven years old, my boy, and then my girl is four years old, and now they have a regular sleeping pattern. They have actually had a regular sleeping pattern for years now, so typically, around the two-year mark or three-year mark, and every baby is different, every kid's different, so I'm just saying this based on my experience and what I've heard. The regular sleeping patterns start to kick in, but for a three-month-old, for sure, it's not going to be regular at all. It's going to be very difficult and I wouldn't be able to do it if I had a three month old at the time.

It's just going to take some time. Don't worry. As a young dad, I want to let you know that what you're going through is completely normal. It's one of the most difficult, but also most rewarding things in the world, and when you're starting out, in terms of health and fitness, as a young dad it can be very hard. For me, it was a matter of, “Okay, well, I can't and I don't have time to go to the gym anymore. I need to figure out how I can squeeze in sort of fitness at home,” and I started working on those at-home programs like P90X and then Insanity, and fitting those into my schedule as much as I could.

It was how I actually started to get back into shape, because I remember when I started to be a dad, I got out of shape, because I just didn't sleep regularly. I didn't eat well. I wanted to eat quickly, so I can take care of the kids and help out my wife, and so yeah, it just takes time. The regular sleeping, the more hours of time during the day, it's going to come. Even for me now, I mean, my daughter is in preschool only three days a week, so still, she's at home most of the time and on those days, it's only three hours, but next year, she'll be going to kindergarten and she'll be there five days a week, and so time will open up, but man, spend as much time as you can with your kids right now is the other thing I'll say.

I'm not saying this because I don't think you are, but for anybody out there, our kids grow so fast, and putting in the time now to reap the benefits later, like I talk about with business, it's really important and probably even more important with parenting, because those years fly by, for sure. Enjoy the time. Yes, you're not able to get much sleep, you're probably eating terribly and that is totally okay. Try to make wise decisions. Try to fit in that time to work on your personal development and your fitness and health as you can, but also just be grateful for the fact that you have this family and these beautiful children, and yeah, man, so it'll come. It'll come, for sure.

I just want to encourage you and also just to congratulate you, because you're taking care of biz and I love that. Dave, thank you so much for the question. I appreciate you. You can follow my stories and stuff on Instagram now. I'm not using Snapchat quite as much anymore, because I get far more reach on Instagram and Instagram's stories work in a similar way to Snapchat, so I'll see you guys there at Instagram. Instagram.com/patflynn, or just look up my handle there on Instagram when you open it up next time. P-A-T F-L-Y-N-N, and you'll see just how I'm getting into this routine of waking up at four a.m. and getting stuff done. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'm usually playing ball with a bunch of other guys, who are insane and wake up that early.

It is like five on five basketball, but why is it that early? Well, that's the only time we can all fit it in, because we all lead busy lives, and a lot of the other guys, they have nine-to-five jobs, or they're entrepreneurs, as well, but they want to wake up and get things done, and get exercise in before the kids wake up, but obviously, our kids are a little bit older, so they are able to work those things into their schedule and whatnot. Anyway, yeah, Dave. Thanks so much. I want to send you a t-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. For those of you listening, if you have a question that you'd like potentially featured here on the show, as well, just head on over to askpat.com and you can ask right there on that page.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Also, FreshBooks, check them out. One more time, the 30 day free trial is available at FreshBooks.com/AskPat and make sure you enter, “Ask Pat” in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Then finally, here is actually a proverb to finish the day. It's kind of like a quote, I guess, but here's a Spanish proverb and that is, “Drink nothing without seeing it. Sign nothing without reading it.” That's a good one. All right, guys. Take care and I'll see you next week in the next episode of AskPat. Bye for now.