One Foot in Front Of The Other

"When your mind doesn't do the job, your feet have to." -Anonymous

This saying was told to me once when I forgot my keys and had to hike back to the apartment. The walk was not bad. What was bad was that we were already late to the movie and there were four people waiting on me.
The point of this message is that if there is little to no thought of exercise selection in strength and conditioning fitness programming someone is going have to work later. By "work" I mean there is going to be a lack of efficiency in getting to the end fitness, strength, power relating to the sport or activity. The only way to make up for the lack of efficiency is to make up the gap in performance with increased effort and energy. In the end poor performance, movement inefficiencies, overuse injuries and fatigue are sure to follow.
If you are an active exerciser, consider the amount of planning that you took on your workout. For example, if you workout three times per week consistently, this adds up to 156 workouts/year. I'm not even talking about how long you're in the gym, lifting, jumping, doing group exercise, cardio, etc.. All put together, at the end of the year you can be 156 workouts closer to achieving your goals or 156 workouts closer to pain, discomfort.
Take some time today or before your next workout and evaluate your performance and level of conditioning. Are you achieving your desired results? Are you making gains in conditioning and strength? If you can honestly answer a solid "yes" to those two basic questions, great! Keep up the good work and keep plugging along. If not, let your mind do more of the work so your feet don't have to.