Week 3; Believe In Yourself!

This week I’d like to talk to you all about Believing In Yourself.  As with all things in life, I can best relate to your experiences through my own, and to do that, I need to give you a little background history. 

So, in the spring of 2009  I found myself in an unpleasant place.

I was the dreaded 3-0, and staring down the barrel of 31 in a few months, and I was faced with the grim fact that I was not who I thought I’d be at this age and stage of my life.  I was 65lbs overweight, I had chronic back pain, a genetic arthritic condition in my knees that was worsening, no energy, and a really negative, unenthusiastic outlook on life.

For those of you who’ve worked with me for my 10 years at the agency, you could probably look back at that time and recognize that I was really at a low point in my life.  For those of you who only know Lisa Roebuck post-2010, you probably have a hard time imagining it.  I get a lot of people telling me that folks don’t want to sign up for the Wellness Challenge because they’re intimidated by the level of fitness that some of the participants, like myself, have.  They get the impression that this is a challenge for fitness buffs and enthusiasts, for gym rats, for the kind of people they assume that I am.

And I have to tell you, it’s both flattering and surreal, because up until two and a half years ago the most weight I’d ever lifted was probably a 10lb sack of flour while I was baking holiday cookies!  I’d never run A LAP AROUND A GYMNASIUM, let alone a mile, or a 5k.  I’d never held a gym membership.  I’d never been physically fit or active.  I was never involved in sports or things of that nature.  When I was young, I was “skinny-fat”; that kind of soft, flabby build that’s genetically blessed to maintain a small size…until life and age creep up on you! 

Folks, when I started dieting (for the umpteenth time, it seemed) and working out that spring, I felt discouraged and desperate.  I didn’t feel like I could make the change; I didn’t feel like I would ever be FIT.  I was just hoping to lose SOME weight.  I think I honestly viewed myself as a lost cause, without consciously acknowledging those feelings!  And I’m betting that lots of you know exactly the feeling I’m talking about, either in your past, or in your current state.

I didn’t get where I am today by anything short of feeling I had nothing to lose, and giving it my all in a last-ditch effort.  I’d call it more desperation than anything else!  And while that’s one way to get here, it’s not the path I’d recommend.  It’s a lousy place to start from, completely bottom-of-the-hill, and you’re causing yourself an extra mental climb.

Because, guys, if *I* could do this, YOU CAN DO THIS!  I don’t care what your physical state is today or how long you’ve been in it, you are a statue waiting to be carved.  You are the marble from which a great work is waiting to emerge!  You are not a lost cause; rather, you are a cause waiting to be championed, and you really need to be that champion FOR YOURSELVES.

A friend shared a quote with me today, and I believe in it to the very core of who I am.  I can relate to this with every fiber of my being.  The quote is:  “Believe in yourself and all that you are.  Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” – Christian D. Larson

Give yourselves a chance.  Don’t look at people like me and make the assumptions that somehow we’re genetically gifted or lucky to have taken care of our health or any of that crap.  More fit people today were fat people yesterday than you can possibly imagine!  The only thing standing in your way are all the thoughts in your head telling you who you aren’t, who you can’t be.  They’re obstacles you’re throwing into your own path.  And you are greater than any obstacle.

Every day in our lives, every minute, we make choices.  And every choice we make flows into the next one; at any  point we can make a bad flow of choices STOP, and turn them into a good flow. 

This week I’m spending 4 days in Las Vegas.  In the middle of the Wellness Challenge.  Talk about taking on my own personal challenge!  But I can tell you this.  Every day I wake up, I’ll have the choice whether or not to work out that day.  Every meal that I eat, I’ll have the choice to choose between hamburgers and salads, steak and steamed fish, French fries and raw vegetables.  I have the same choices, every day, that all of you have.  Sometimes I make good ones, sometimes I make bad ones.  The only obstacles I have to overcome are my own mental ones; really, is a burger in Vegas any better than a burger in Denver, and really, why is having one such a big deal anyway?  I’ll feel way better, physically, if I eat the salad!  And really, if I were home, I’d be working out, why not in Vegas? 

We run into obstacles every single day-all of us!  We are not just equal to them, we are greater than them.  Today, folks, take a good hard look at what’s standing in between you and your goals, whatever they may be, and remind yourself; YOU CAN DO THIS!  BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND ALL THAT YOU ARE! 

Wishing for all of you great mental strength, as you enter this third week of the challenge, and faith in yourselves, as you begin the first day of the rest of your lives!  Go out there today and get yourselves some, and remember, when it all seems too hard, when it seems you just can’t bring it today, stop thinking, and JUST GO!