My friend and colleague Jill Fleming is a Registered Dietitian and wellness speaker who travels the world encouraging people to make “Love Your Body Choices.” She recently shared an article for our soon-to-be-released Escape Adulthood magazine. (It’s at the printer!) One of the tips in her article is . . .
“Squeeze any muscle you wish to tone. Hold it until it starts to burn and then hold 5-seconds longer.”
Great tip! It also applies to following your dreams. In order to get to the next level in your goals you have to not only let it burn, you have to persist through the burn. Too many people stop when it starts to get uncomfortable.
I recently found this video clip from the movie, Facing the Giants, which came out last September. It really got me thinking about all of this.
If you don’t either have chills or a tear rolling down your cheek, you might want to check your pulse.
Awe-inspiring.
What I love about sports is how the lessons you learn can directly apply to your life. Lessons on persistence, courage, strength, etc.
Something really struck me about the reactions of Brock’s peers. For the first 30 yards or so they were razzing him, laughing, and teasing him about his buddy falling off of his back. It was all a joke to them. Somewhere along the journey, they shut up, sat a little taller and became curious about what they were witnessing. By the end they were standing, with their jaws on the ground and respect in their eyes. They were paying attention.
Coach told Brock, “God has gifted you with the ability of leadership, don’t waste it.”
What has God gifted you with?
Are you truly doing your best?
Have you prematurely written something off as a loss?
Are you setting your goals too safe, 10 yards, instead of 100?
The coach’s messages are ones you need to remind yourselves of everyday.
“Don’t stop. Keep moving. Keep driving it. Don’t quit until you’ve got nothing left. Your very best. I want everything you got. You need to negotiate with you body to find more strength. Gimmie more.”
It will burn. You will hurt. It will be heavy.
You can go more than 50 yards.
[tags]Jill Fleming, Love Your Body Choices, Facing the Giants, sports, dreams, goals, leadership, persistence[/tags]
What a truly awesome video!! Thank you so much for giving me the inspiration I needed during a series of rough weeks. We’ve all got more in us than we think we do. This video is a great way to show us how to find more inside ourselves. (And yes, I had several tears in my eyes, make that a river.) Wow.
Thanks for visiting my site and leaving a comment. I came here because of that and am grateful I did. What a great video and post. Thank you!
Jean Browman
Cheerful Monk
Transforming Stress Into Personal Power
What a beautiful and inspiring post. Thanks for challenging us!
That video is haunting me, and the word is “haunting”, not “inspiring.” Probably because I also saw two videos of a harassed woman on the evening news a couple of days ago. The first video was taken by a surveillance camera at a convenience store. The woman had just bought something and was rushing off to work. The second video of her was at a police station that evening. She was devastated, dissolved in tears, saying she had tried so hard to be everything to everyone. She was the assistant vice principal at a school, and when she got back to her car that afternoon she saw her baby, securely fastened in the car seat and thoroughly cooked by the heat of the car/oven. I think we want to be careful of this attitude of “We can do more. We can achieve more.” It often distracts us from the truly important things of life. It can inadvertently be advocating psychological violence.
Thanks for the food for thought.
PS The news program pointed out the unintended consequence of putting children in the back seat is it is easy to forget them when people are overly stressed.
Jean,
Oh, what a devastating story. How horrible!
You bring up a great point, which gives me a chance to clarify what may have been misunderstood in this post. By advocating this message of persistence, I am talking to the folks who are either … 1) going through a tough battle in their journey, such as illness, chronic pain, or even persisting through loss, or 2) living life too small by hiding away in their safe cubicles with “good benefits,” and not asking if they could be missing out on their true purpose by avoiding some of the pain that goes into the journey.
I am glad you brought this up about that woman because I certainly do not think that busy, overworked individuals should be trying to “do it all” and living such stressful lives. Part of our hope with all of these messages about Adultitis and Escaping Adulthood is to help woman like the one you mention slow down, re-prioritize, and proactively change her life before something so tragic happens. In fact, of all of the things that kill us, stress has been linked to all of them. Life balance is critical.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, Jean.