I was at the gym today in a Grit Strength class (a particularly hard class) and the instructor Jerry called out “know your why!” in the middle of a tough bit of the workout. It was pretty cool because I knew exactly what my why is and I noticed my energy levels spike a little bit to push on through. After class I was thinking about it and it reminded me of the personal journey I’ve gone through to get myself into a challenge like this (remembering this is always something I’ve wanted to do but never been able to take it from a dream to reality).
Many times I’ve seen inspirational actions or quotes and tried to use them as the drive to do something different with my life, and failed. Just carrying on in the same manner as always because it’s easy to do. It’s not a disparaging comment on myself, just a fact that the path of least resistance is not to chase your dreams, especially if they’re particularly challenging (or maybe that I’ve chased other dreams and challenges; like having a child). Finally I found something that struck a chord with me and changed it from I “I could do that” to “I will do that”.
Embarrassingly, and slightly ridiculously, it was while watching Masterchef Australia and Marco Pierre White, he said something along the lines of “no one else will make your dream happen but you, you’ve got to be the one to chase your dream and don’t give up on it!”. I realised that it’s as simple as that, no one else will get you to the place you want to go, only you, but you have to keep the passion and drive alive and keep fighting the path of least resistance. And you’ve got to enjoy it while you’re doing it! This is what led to opening the discussions with Steve a few years ago and from there it’s just snowballed.
I think this also raises an important point of making decisions based on fears of what people will think rather than what you really want. It’s all too easy to decide I won’t go ahead with that because people will think this or think that. What’s right for me is my decision and what’s right for anyone else is their decision and other people should bloody well respect that. Rant over 🙂
Then when my uncle passed away a couple of months ago it provided that further reinforcement that living your life how your want to live it is an important thing to do. Again you have to do that for yourself, no one else can help you do it but you.
When I think about all of this it makes me super proud that I am chasing a dream and making it reality, and doing it with my best mate and brother. That’s so cool!!
So…….Don’t waste a day!