Back to School and Dreaming BIG!!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for many people right now.  Summer break is over and droves of children everywhere are flocking back to school, ready to tackle a new year of experiences that could shape them for years to come.  Meanwhile, parents are back to their regularly scheduled programming, and aren’t paying for summer camp after summer camp and feeding what it seems like is an endless army of children trouncing through their kitchen.  But more than all that, it’s a time when children, teens, and college bound young adults, are all told to dream big.  “You can be whatever you want to be!!” we tell them.  The president, an astronaut, a baseball player, a superhero, a princess...the list goes on and on.  We encourage these dreams and aspirations; we tell them to shoot for the stars!  Yet somewhere along the line, we ourselves have lost this fervor, this quest for MORE.  We settle into the realm we feel we were dealt.  We lie to ourselves and say “oh well, this is my life now” and settle for mediocre.  I don’t remember any kids at the age of 12 saying “I sure hope I grow up to be average!! That’d be awesome!!”  We always want better for our children, we bust our ass for our boss, we bend over backwards to help others (which is not a bad thing), but we don’t demand more of ourselves!!  Fitness is always a great metaphor for life in general.  When you get uncomfortable, when you push yourself further that you ever thought possible, more often than not great things will happen.  People do not go bankrupt by accident, yet many throw their hands in the air and give up their hopes and dreams of taking their kids on vacation or buying that house on the beach.  Those 40 extra pounds you’re carrying around didn’t get there by accident either, yet many just accept it and throw the aspirations of running a marathon or climbing a mountain right out the window.  But we DO have the power to change those things and make ourselves better no matter what stage of life we’re in.  If you woke up this morning, it was for a reason.  You still have a purpose to serve, and it’s never to late to make positive change.  I want to implore each and every one of you to dream again.  And not just dream, but dream BIG!!  Put a vision in your head of something you want to achieve, and make sure it scares you just a little bit.  “The only regrets in life are the chances you didn’t take”

THE Fitness Ninja...changing the world one pushup at a time.