Challenging ourselves...

 

As someone whose livelihood and career is based around helping people become the best/healthiest version of themselves it continues to keep me curious as to what stops people from choosing the best, hard as hell, but still best, path toward this healthy version.  

If I could figure this out, in theory, the more people I can help?  

I'm not sure if it can actually work that way if people just aren't ready to put their health and well being ahead of their cravings/wants the majority of the time. It is all still a puzzle for me.  

I see things from my perspective as the leader of our community. 

For our perfectionists, if you can't do it all then you don't bother doing any of it. The all or nothing approach. Y'all would rather sit on the sidelines in your comfort zone and/or just watch rather than test yourselves with possible failure on the line. Meanwhile, failure is THE MOST IMPORTANT ingredient of learning. To these folks I would say, give yourself some grace. Go into life's opportunities for growth with one thing and one thing only on your mind... PARTICIPATE to the best of your ability. Accept your humanity and love yourself through your missteps.

For our show-up crew, I believe y'all have become very comfortable with the bare minimum. Now, our bare minimums look different from one another, but I believe a common verse in your head is, "it's better than nothing." Just by the act of taking the time to read this blog, leads me to believe that you exercise regularly. I would ask you now to reflect on, how often you push yourself in your workouts? The pace you go, the weights you use, the standards you hold yourself to with our movements. Have you seen progress in the time you have been training this way or have you plateaued for a while now? For these folks, I wish I could throw a dollop of "give a shit" on top of your wellness journey. You get into the gym regularly, that isn't the issue. It's just learning to find joy in challenging yourself... who gives a shit if you come up short, whatever the hell that means in training! I guarantee that just the crank up in effort will lead to SOME progress.  

For the peeps who think they are doing it all already. I'm not talking about the folks who are already giving it all they have... that is different. I'm talking about the folks who actually believe they have no room for growth in their wellness journey. I am here to tell you we ALL have room for growth in our journey. Using myself as an example.... I do not get enough sleep. I wish I could be an official competitor in the upcoming challenge for that reason alone. It is in the top three things we can do to improve our health and I suck at it. Not because I can't sleep, but because I don't go to bed as early as I should. I WILL participate in the upcoming challenge with y'all as a non-competitor just for this reason.  

For the folks who have resigned to the idea that this is as good as it is going to get, I implore you to KEEP TRYING. Don't be complacent with where you are. You can be fitter, you can be stronger, you can be leaner, you can be HEALTHIER than you are today. WE ALL CAN BE. The only way you stop giving yourself the opportunity to move toward a healthier life, is by giving up on trying. DO NOT GIVE UP!!!! Your future, your life, your loved ones are counting on it!!!

These are the big four I see within our community. Not everyone fits into one of these posse's but can probably all relate to some of them in some area of our life. The category we fit in is not the point, the point is I want to encourage you to CHALLENGE YOURSELF!!!!! If you are doing it in the gym, do it with your nutrition. If you are doing it with your nutrition and workouts then do it with your sleep and self care. If you are doing it with all of the big THREE (exercise, nutrition, and sleep) then you are an anomaly and I would like to offer you an opportunity to talk to our community about the ways you pull this off. If you THINK you are doing all three but still feel tired, sore, run down, and get sick too often... I am here to tell you, you are NOT doing all three well. There is room for improvement. Let's all grind together.

We are a community. We are not all the same. We have our different lives, our different struggles, our different areas of opportunity. But in this journey TOGETHER, we can support one another toward a healthier life. Support is a universal language. YOU GOT THIS!!!