Maybe you’re a fitness instructor, maybe you participate in recreational sports, or maybe you’re simply taking an active role in your own health and fitness. This makes you fairly unique these days, and most likely that will make you stand out within a given peer group. Interestingly, many times the people who are just starting to make healthy changes to their lives are under the most scrutiny, and can be the most vulnerable. Especially if they happen upon a few insecure folks who are uncomfortable with these changes. Not sure what exactly triggered it, but the other night on Twitter, I felt the need to say this:
Don’t let YOUR dreams be limited by the limited imaginations (and unsolicited advice) of others….
— GiryaGirl (@GiryaGirl) February 4, 2014
Personally, I can think of several times where I didn’t take action (but should have) because my confidence was dampened by an off hand “helpful” comment from a friend who theoretically meant well, but who ultimately discouraged me. Don’t let that happen to you, and don’t let that happen to those around you who may be just starting on their path to a healthier lifestyle.
But back to our original topic, if you fall into one of those three categories mentioned in the first sentence of this post, you are a leader—directly or indirectly And people are watching. You can make a difference by sticking with your healthy choices (and often without even saying a word). I’ve had people come up to me years later and say they tried something after seeing me do it. Many times they even report that it was very successful for them! It’s wild but even as adults, we occasionally still need to “give ourselves permission” to make the right choice, and seeing a peer make the right choice is sometimes all that’s necessary. So, be that peer… and you don’t have to get all evangelical about it either. It’s a powerful example to confidently continue with your healthy lifestyle. When people get overly bossy about their practices, I sometimes wonder if they’re also trying to sell themselves on it as much as they are trying to push the ideas onto other people.
One of the things that I try to emphasize when leading a Primal Move Fundamentals instructor workshop is that we need to give our clients permission to play and explore. This is a small subset of what we’re talking about here—by our actions as leaders, we can indirectly give others the permission to succeed. And right now it sure feels like success with your own health is the ULTIMATE non-conformity. While you may or may not self-identify as a hero, if you’re actively working to improve your health and fitness, guess what… you have hero potential. There’s a lot of bossy-ness out there, and it turns a lot of people off—people who probably need the help. But EVERYONE notices a healthy lifestyle in action.
No matter who you are, no matter what part of the journey you’re on, keep doing your best. Of course we all make mistakes from time to time, but if you need just a little bit of extra motivation to get it done remember that making the right choices are not only good for you, but can also be good for those near you in your life. The world is watching, empower others with your successes (big or small).
The other day I was on the phone with recent Guiness World Record setter (and Neuro-Mass author!) Jon Bruney. I will be sharing that interview very soon on Dragon Door, but a lot of the ideas we discussed were incredibly profound. So much of what we do in our physical practice can be a metaphor for success in other areas of life. A general sentiment of “if I can learn to overcome _____________ over a period of time, then I can conquer this other seemingly unrelated struggle.” That idea is also the basis of many of my internal “pep talks”. I’m looking forward to sharing Jon Bruney’s new interview with you, because many of the questions asked were things we all think when someone does a crazy awesome stunt…. and his answers are just fantastic.
In the mean time, here’s some inspirational reading material and interviews that I might have not yet shared here yet:
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