Phoenix Rising
Posted January 25th, 2010 by Dante
I tend to lean towards being the eternal optimist. I believe in the good and value in all of us and try to do what I can to be positive while giving people the benefit of the doubt. I am also the type of person who truly believes that we all have countless opportunities to shape, change and influence the world we live in and that includes taking advantage of the opportunity make those changes in our own lives in order reinvent ourselves. In fact, I believe that we as people should never stop striving to grow and change and that at the core of that is good health all around.
With that being said, finding the motivation to enact the changes in our lives that we know we need to can be the greatest challenge of them all. For many, it takes something extreme – a heart attack, a broken bone, losing a loved one, etc. For me, it was stepping on a scale for the first time in a while and not liking what the little machine was telling me in conjunction with just not feeling good. That was great motivation initially and as I’ve said before, it has yielded positive results for me over the course of the last year or so. However, the biggest challenge I face now is finding new motivation to reset and achieve new fitness and life goals in the midst of relative contentedness. How do I let go of my previous proverbial phoenix in order to allow a new, refocused one to rise from the ashes of previous success?
Some of the things I am trying to do to stay motivated is trying to feel better in more specific ways. In particular, focusing on the little nagging injuries (like my ankle and shoulder) and trying to make them feel better. I have recently started reading a book called Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain by Pete Egoscue (http://www.egoscue.com/products/books.php) which outlines the “Egoscue Method,” a process of using simple stretches and exercises to get the body back into correct alignment. It makes a lot of sense and I can say that I am beginning to feel better. I would definitely recommend taking a look if you have had something bothering you for a while now.
Another way I am finding motivation is through my teammates – The Fire Breathing Beaver Squad – and the amazing encouragement and support we have been able to provide one another thus far. We have had some very good and very candid conversation thus far and I continue to look forward to our regular team meetings. There are other forms of motivation and of course challenges that I continue to face but I feel I am off to a good start as I work to push myself further and out of my current comfort zone.
