February 24, 2020
Live. Laugh. Love
I want to start this blog with an apology. If I ever repeat myself throughout my posts, I do apologize in advance. It is difficult to remember everything I say or have said, so I hope it is not too annoying if you read the same thing twice.
I had almost an entire blog post written, and once again deleted it. I cannot for the life of me figure out why I struggle so much when it comes to writing. If something is important to you, and you know it is a big part of your purpose, then it should be easy, right? The answer is unfortunately no. Doing what you “feel like doing” will honestly get you nowhere in life. There are so many things I know make me a better person that I don’t feel like doing. People see how often I go to the gym, and assume I am always motivated, but it isn’t the case. I love the gym, and I will workout until I die, but I don’t ALWAYS feel like going. One way I combat a lack of motivation in any area of life is by reminding myself how I feel afterwards versus how I feel in the moment. I never leave the gym or church without feeling better afterwards. Discipline brings me freedom because it breaks the chains of “feelings.” Even when it comes to something as trivial as eating pizza. It took me years to realize that the feeling afterwards was not worth it for the good feelings as I consumed it. It makes me feel like death, and not for an hour, but for days. I had a doctor ask me how I “avoid” certain foods,and he was amazed when I replied “I simply remind myself how I feel afterwards.” When I saw him a week later he told me he tried my methods, and it worked. I love when cardiologists, and cardiac surgeons ask little ole me for nutrition advice LOL. I mean… if I have mostly mastered how to separate how I feel in a moment versus how I feel after, why can I not seem to get it together with the blog? Well to be quite honest with myself, and all of you, I haven’t worked on it. I haven’t worked on making it a habit, and I haven’t put in the mental perserverence it has taken me to master anything. Anything worth having or doing takes an exceptional amount of work. Well the good news is that I am no longer a quitter. I say no longer because I use to quit almost everything. I like to think about why I did that, and I am not sure if it was because those activities, and people weren’t for me or that I didn’t have the self-awareness or patience to keep going. When I reference “people” I mean past friendships. When it comes to dating, I know those men were NOT for me (Trust me LOL.)
As a kid I played softball, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, the piano, cheered, ran track and danced. I didn’t stick with any of them “long term.” The one thing I stuck with was working. I babysat and had other jobs since I was twelve. I liked making money. That I stuck with hahaha. It wasn’t until I started bodybuilding that I truly stuck with a sport. I was already on my journey to self-improvement and this pushed me even further. It took the discipline I already began to possess and pushed me to the next level. Most people only see the physical aspect, but it took my mental and emotional strength and exemplified it, and besides for my prayer life it is the single thing that bonded me to God like nothing else. I would try and explain it to you, but unless you live it, you won’t truly understand. As my faith grew stronger, and into what it is today, it lead me back to the person I knew I was always meant to be. Sometimes it can be difficult to navigate who you are meant to be when the world wants you to be someone else. I think everything in life is very individual, and the sad thing is that many people are not self-aware. They see nothing wrong with anything they may say, do, or feel. In the new age of self-love I am here to tell you that none of us are perfect, and yes just because you feel a certain way does not mean you need to react to it. Just because you want to eat the bad food, avoid the gym, skip church, slack at work, drink too much, ride someone’s ass as you drive, yell at your kids, yell at your spouse, tell your customers they are wrong, sulk because your situation isn’t good, or anything else that won’t suit you in the long run, doesn’t mean you HAVE to. You get to choose! You get to choose how you will react to any situation, circumstance or person that is sent your way. You get to decide what is worth a reaction. If you want to eat the pizza, but have a goal to hit, and you choose to eat the pizza then you sacrificed long term satisfaction with feeling good in a moment. I am not saying NEVER eat the pizza. Trust me I have given in to some Megalicious cookies one too many times. (By the way, this particular line is brought to you by, and made by Meg Miller) If you have never had a cookie made by the great Meg Miller, then you truly are not living. They are 8000x more difficult to not eat than the pizza hahaha. Anyway, my point here is that you get to decide how you will attack your feelings, and choices every single day. I am saying this to myself, too!! If I could go back in time, and tell my younger self that if I actually wanted to excel in something that I would have to put in the work, I would do it. I hated practicing, but wondered why I didn’t excel in sports. The funny part is that I was actually good at everything I did, but I wasn’t GREAT, and I wasn’t GREAT because I chose not to be.
I almost deleted this AGAIN…but then I came back and re-read it and thought to myself “Hmmmm it’s not too bad LOL.”
So today on 02/20/2020 I choose greatness when it comes to this blog. I am not giving up. I will not quit, and if I start to slack I will work even harder. I will ignore how I feel up front for the long-term satisfaction of leaving behind a legacy, and being great in any way I can.
This week I challenge us all to step up and recognize how we feel, but to choose the long-term satisfaction over immediate gratification. Do something this week that will benefit you in the long run.
“Short term satisfaction can never give you long term happiness.” Hishma Hamad
To Be Continued……
All My Love,
Reenie