What Motivates You?

This week has been a triumphant one for me!  So I thought I would share with you all what made it so successful in the hope that maybe my adrenaline rush might rub off a little on you.  Today's entry is a little excerpt from a post from my personal blog this week:

I grew up an athlete.  I was always playing sports.  I played basketball, softball, volleyball, and I was a swimmer.  I played competitive sports all the way until my junior year in high school when I decided to get more serious about my instrument.  But I've always considered myself an athlete (especially because I'm built like one...which equals SERIOUS flab when you're no longer working out anymore...).  Even when I wasn't playing competitively anymore, I was still in marching band which really is an athletic event.  So I stayed pretty thin and fit while I was in college because of that.  But literally a MONTH after I graduated college, I started gaining weight.  There were lots of contributing factors there, but probably the most prominent one was my inactivity.  I was too busy to run, to busy to work out, maybe just TOO busy in general.  So by July after Jonathan and I got married, I had gained a little less than 30 pounds.  And I've been working for the last 5 years to shave that shame...I mean those pounds off...

Then I came here to the Bahamas with this fabulous workout plan in mind.  But my teeny little apartment is really not conducive to P90X.  I tried a few workouts in the beginning and found myself REALLY restricted.  I mean how do you do plyometric exercises in a 5X5 living room?  So I thought, "Well I'm eating less and walking more...I'll maintain and maybe lose a little weight in the meantime".  So I've probably lost a pound or two since I've been here.  Then it hit me last weekend that we are coming home in less than 5 weeks and it will be the holiday season!  And Jonathan and I will be running around like crazy people seeing friends and family and prepping for Dominica and EATING (since we are so craving like 20+ US restaurants right now...).  And then I have to move to a tropical island and rock a swimsuit again.  So I decided to start running.  It gives me an excuse to go see the ocean every day...

I decided to start out running one song and walking the next.  So I have been.  And my loop is just under a mile and a half, so I stay running for like 10-12 minutes total.  But here's my thing (hence the title of this post).  I am such a quitter when it comes to fitness.  I get within striking distance of a goal and quit because...well I don't know why.  I always have.  Maybe it's because I'm afraid of failing, maybe it's because I'm just a pansy.  I don't know.  But when I was playing competitive sports, literally every single coach I ever had (with the exception of my Daddy who fielded my famous "talk to the hand" MO with grace and was ALWAYS supportive of me...) simply put...HATED me.  They were so condescending and just plain mean.  They praised my teammates and tore me down.  "Pick up the pace Harris!", "My grandma could run faster than that!", "The whole team is gonna run horses until Harris actually runs it as fast as the rest of the team!", "Harris, get the hell out of my gym!".  Maybe now you can see why I went running to the band hall!!  But now, as an adult, I can see where they were coming from.  I was on the brink of something great.  I was within striking distance of a better time, a quicker pace, something greater than I was allowing myself to achieve.  I see that now for a lot of reasons.  Not the least of which is the fact that I DIDN'T back down when it came to French Horn stuff and I kicked butt and took names.  Where could I have gone if I'd just kept running, just got outside of my head for a minute and "picked up the pace".  What would have changed if, when the famous "get the hell out of my gym!" came, I said "No Coach" and put my head down and ran my butt off instead leaving like she said to...broken and bruised...with my morale shot.  Set the pace, lead the team, didn't take that criticism to heart, and showed my teammates that I have more willpower than that stupid woman had given me credit for...

I was always good at verbal encouragement.  Not so good at pace setting.  What would have been different if I had realized, in those days of being a true athlete, that not only could I be the "cheerleader", I could be the physical motivator too??  So today, I channeled a few of my former teammates.  And I kept putting one foot in front of the other.  I kept moving.  I kept saying to myself "You're going faster than you were sitting on the couch!".  And I didn't stop from the time I walked out my front door to the time I stepped back inside.  1.48 miles later I feel like maybe I could conquer the world!  That might sound like a tiny little feat, but let me tell you that it is HUGE for me.  I honestly don't know if I've EVER done that in my life!  I always defeated myself and said I couldn't do it.  But today, I did.  Today, I didn't defeat myself.  And today I am actually REALLY proud of myself!  For the first time in way too long in regards to fitness.

So thank you to my inspiring former teammates!  And honestly, thank you to all my "crappy" coaches!  I wish I had really known what you were trying to get out of me.  Maybe if I knew that you saw how close I was to being truly fantastic at what I was doing, I would have reached a little deeper and grabbed that goal.  Or maybe I wouldn't have.  Maybe it just takes a little life experience to make you realize that you're your own worst critic, your own negative energy.  That little voice inside that says "you know you probably can't" is a big fat (emphasis on the BIG and the FAT part) liar!  Because an almost 28 year old woman who is 11 1/2 years removed from "true athlete" status reached her fitness goal today.  And it feels incredible!

So my challenge to you this week (in true EYL form) is this.  Evaluate what motivates you!  What are your goals?  What needs to happen so that you can reach out and grab that goal?  Is it as simple as just ignoring that little lying voice in your head?  Or maybe it will take more than that.  But imagine yourself REACHING that goal...maybe surpassing it!  I bet you'll be amazed at how quickly that "inability" melts away...

Where is Fancy Bred? In the Heart or in the Head?

This week I decided to share a little laugh with y'all (get ready for the y'all's to come out here...I AM a Texan after all!).  I think this particular story fits right in with the "Embrace Your Life" theme.  Enjoy...and you're welcome! ;)

So the first week that Jonathan and I were here in Freeport we had seriously NO money.

We had spent literally everything we had trying to get here and buy the things we were going to need while we were here and our bank account was literally $0.  

Sad, but true.

We had enough cash to buy a loaf of bread, a half gallon of milk, and a dozen eggs.

I had one more teacher paycheck coming, but it wasn't going to be here for another week and a half.

So by the end of the week we were still broke, and had eaten all the food we'd purchased.

After a dinner of one egg scrambled and shared between the two of us, we began to get a little hungry.

My famous after dinner quote is "I think I need something sweet."

Of course there was nothing sweet in the house.  

What's the only thing two broke Caribbeans have on hand that's sweet??

You guessed it! (or maybe you didn't) We each ate one Tums...

Yes we did.  And it was delicious!

It was even the "tropical blend" so we felt it was an appropriate dessert for the Bahamas.

We closed our eyes, savored the Tums, and pretended it was the most delectable tropical dessert.

Hopefully that little story put a smile on your face.  When I remember that night, I remember laughing out loud when we both realized we were eating a stinkin' Tums for dessert!  I can tell you that some of the happiest times in our marriage have been when we were broke as billy goats.  We had lost sight of that over the years because we had both been actually making good money and didn't have a care in the world financially.  Now we're back to square one with money, and our marriage is even stronger than it was 5 years ago.  The things that make you truly happy in life cannot be bought!

So challenge #2 (I'm sensing an impending trend with my posts here at EYL):

If you had $0 in your bank account with no immediate remedy to the problem, what would you spend your time doing?  What would make you laugh?  How could you strengthen your relationships (marriage or otherwise)?  Do you really need money to be happy?

And maybe the most important question...what in the world would you eat for dessert?? :)

Pick Up Something Greater

Well, today marks my first post here on Embrace YOUR Life!  I'm so excited to be writing here and I can't wait to share with you all some insights, life lessons, life experience, and hopefully a few laughs along the way!  I decided that today I should start by sort of sharing with you some of the most life changing revelations I have learned in the past few months.  You see, I recently moved here to Freeport, Grand Bahamas with my husband Jonathan.  He is a med student at Ross University.  We left behind a cute little life in Houston, Texas where I was teaching middle school, he was teaching high school, and we were enjoying the comfort of our first home.  Then everything changed.  We had some HUGE curve balls thrown at us, and Jonathan felt highly convicted to become a physician after much thought and prayer.  And miraculously, God provided a way for us to fulfill that calling.  Hence why we left everything and came here!

So I came across this quote not too long ago and I think it is PERFECT for what we are walking right now.  I kind of wish I'd read it a few years ago:

Do you ever feel like if you take a leap of faith, even if you feel REALLY convicted to do that, that you'll lose everything you've worked for?  That taking that plunge might mean you come up with nothing in the end?  I felt that way too.  When the time came for me to quit my perfect little job and sell our perfect little house and leave our perfect little life, I thought taking that leap would mean I'd be broke, homeless, and friendless.  But let me tell you, it doesn't work like that!  When God is calling you to leave something at His feet, it's not because He thinks you shouldn't have everything wonderful that life has to offer.  It's because there's something far greater out there for you!  What you have clenched in your fists is usually miniscule in comparison to what you could pick up if you'd just let go.  What's awaiting you behind that door of "blind faith" is unfathomable.  And the minute you realize that you can't hold on forever is the minute you realize you don't need to!

I am by no means "finished" with this journey that Jonathan and I are walking right now.  But I am finding little things along the path that remind me that there are better things awaiting me if I just keep pressing on.  I've been reminded that material things (like a house, a car, money) really honestly are not the key to happiness.  I had all those things and I was happy, yes!  But now, I don't have any of those things (unless you count my one bedroom scantly furnished bungalow as a "house"), and I'm HAPPY! Go figure!  My happiness comes from the love of my friends and family, the beauty of the world around me (and the gorgeous beaches here in Freeport!), the love of my husband, and my relationship with my Lord.  There are difficult days, don't get me wrong.  But I do try to take those days in stride and keep my eyes on the prize...

My challenge to you as we go into this weekend, is to assess what it is in your life that truly makes you happy.  Think outside the box!  My question to you is this:  If you were asked to drop EVERYTHING in your life right now in order to receive something greater, would you do it?  Could you do it?  What's holding you back?  

If you think that you can't, let me be the first to tell you that YOU CAN!  The greatest things in life are not lost on a leap of faith...

Just jump...