we all have them at one time or another throughout our lives. sometimes we ignore them and other times they light a fire under our ass. one of my most vivid light bulb moments happened in high school, in my senior year. i'll be the first to admit that i slacked off big time in high school. call it what it is-laziness. basically i was living by the motto, a C will get you a degree. as a senior, we were expected to start making plans for what we wanted to do after graduation, as in continue our education. so as normal protocol would have it, i get called in to visit with my personal guidance counselor, mr. winters, our first and last visit. His exact words to me after looking at my grades, "you should just go to a vo-tech school." i was pissed! not that there is anything wrong with vo-tech school but i felt like he wrote me off without even really knowing anything about me. that stuck in my head forever and as tramatic as it seemed at the time and as wrong as i thought it was that he said that to me, it made me say, "i'll show you." i think i did finally find the right path, graduated at the top of my class at u.s.f. in exercise phys. and built a very succcessful personal training business. the rest is history and i'm living a lifestyle i chose for myself and have absolutely no regrets.
here is one of my favorite quotes that pretty much sums up how i live my life today thanks to mr. winters' 1988 smack down:
All my life I've always had the urge to do things better than anybody else.
~Babe Didrikson Zaharias
i've had the pleasure of meeting several people lately who have made some very positive changes in their lives because of light bulb moments. they are for real! i'm glad i met them and you all inspire me as well. as a (semi-retired) personal trainer, i can appreciate the sacrafices people make to reach their goals. with the new year almost upon us, i hear it all around me, i'm going to lose weight, i'm going to start exercising, or whatever the resolution or goal happens to be. i try to keep the personal trainer in me silent because i've learned over the years, you can talk until you are blue in the face and make all the sense in the world, but most will not listen. how rare it is to see even just 1% of those people really make that commitment and stick to it? i don't understand it, i'm not sympathetic at all and i don't accept excuses lightly. to me, excuses are just reasons to fail.
i've made my goals (not resolutions) for the year. i fully intend to see them thru as i have every goal i have made since graduating from high school.
Love this! I hate talk and no action. Those of us who spend the time listening to people's intentions and then they don't put out...irritating!
ReplyDelete"A little less conversation, a little more action!"
-Elvis
I love that! You go girl! Are you posting your goals.....or just letting everyone know when you have reached them:) You always inspire me!
ReplyDeletewell, it seems the first post back to you amy did not post. i'll be updating my training for the ironman distance race (the great floridian) and whatever else happens to be on my mind. i have a lot on my mind and it helps to put it down in writing for whatever it's worth.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right KC, I am one of those less than motivated souls who states all the time I am going to lose the weight. One would think, having you as a shining example around us who sticks to her goals,is very discipline and looks great in her clothes would be a challenge for me to make a change. Instead, I eat and some how think that I am going to look and feel differently. Well I think that it is time to make "that change". I probabaly won't run any marathons, but I can start by taking advantage of that free registration card to Weight Watchers that I received last night and creating a better me in 2010. I am listening to you KC, up until recently, there just wasn't enough desire to do anything about it.
ReplyDelete