I was on my way to Cincinnati to attend an event being put on by a beautiful friend and colleague of mine.
The event sounded amazing and I was honored she had invited me.
I was watching the movie “Joy” with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.
Tears were pouring down my face.
(spoiler alert).
If you haven’t seen the movie it’s about a down and out single mother who has put her dreams on hold to take care of her family. Until she was just unable to bear it any longer.
So she taps into her grit. Her determination. She decides to follow something through.
She endures failure after failure, setback after setback – each one more devastating than the last.
But she doesn’t give up.
Each hurdle requires a massive leap of faith and tremendous courage.
Risk.
Financial. Emotional.
She endures humiliation, loss, betrayal, even being arrested by the police.
BUT SHE DOES NOT STOP.
She has a dream that she goes after with fierce determination and against so many odds: family members who pretend to be with her, bad advice, not knowing exactly what she was doing, and more.
“It was my mistake to make her think she was more than she was”…Joy’s Dad says about his daughter.
The thing is when you spend your time hiding from the world, you’re safe, but it means you’re also hiding from yourself.
Why is it so scary to be seen?
ACHIEVING YOUR DREAMS IS WORK. BUT when that work is fueled by passion it’s joyful. But not always. Sometimes it feels like you’re living in the shitpit of hell.
So, how do you start? How do you start to get healthy when you feel like you’ve tried and failed so many times before?
Well, it starts with a deep rooted sense of belief in yourself
It requires the ability to overcome fear.
You have to choose to start loving yourself as you are, right now, because one thing I know is that you can’t hate yourself healthy.
But you can hate yourself miserable, defeated and alone – the world seems dark and bleak when you’re in that place.
And you have to choose to commit.
So what does this have to do with exercise you ask?
Everything.
Starting an exercise routine requires that you acknowledge yourself – your desire to feel healthy, to have energy and to feel good about accomplishing your goals. It demands that you step out of your hiding place, that comfort zone that has tricked you into staying for far too long.
It means that you start to follow through on the things you say you want to do. You get up when the alarm goes off. You schedule in 20 minutes to move your body. You do it regardless if you feel like it or not. You show up for yourself. You stretch and move and sweat in ways that aren’t necessarily familiar to you but feel strangely good. You allow yourself to be a priority.
It also requires that you allow yourself to be seen, because once you commit to an exercise routine, things will start to change. Your attitude will improve. Your thinking will become more clear. And your body will look better. People close to you WILL notice, and they will ask you about it. Next week I’ll share EXACTLY what I did to get back into fitness after being sedentary for almost 2 years.
Are you ready to take that bold leap and say “yes” to the good things the universe has for you?
Yes? Well then get ready to be seen my friend. 🙂
Drop down into the comments below and let me know what’s been holding you back from starting an exercise routine?
Make exercise something you LOVE to do, not something you punish yourself with. Click below to get instant access to my *free* ebook now.
