Overcoming Obstacles

I've tried to write this post a handful of times. For some reason I just can't spit out into words what's going through my brain. There's so many different angles I could take this. The "hump" seems more complicated to me than ever. Nevertheless, here's a handful of theories:

1. (From a post I never published last week)

I've been meditating on "the hump" this week. I wanted to make sure I put enough thought and research into this topic as it's a big one. There are many ideas and approaches to this that entered my brain this week. Although there were lots of keepers, there is one logic that I feel sums it all up.

We only have one chance, one life; make it a good one.

I came to this conclusion earlier in the week. My husband and I were having one of our usual "budget meetings", but this one was far from usual. Instead of discussing monthly goals we visited about our vision for the next 5-25 years. I know there are so many variables and things that could change dramatically during that time, like our income (either up or down). Nonetheless, we set some goals for retirement, kids college funds, future house, car, boat, etc... Then it hit me, we only have ONE chance at this. If we mess it up now, there's not another opportunity because we have just this one life. We're only going to be 30 years old one time. We're only going to have the year 2008 one time. July 6th, 2008 only happens once. Deep, I know. As I was sharing this insight with my husband, he called me Mandy Freud...Funny.

So I wanted to attempt to make this correlate with fitness. I only have one body. If I decide to eat extra calories for the decade of my 30's and omit exercising regularly, chances are when I hit 40 my body will start to show the effects. My knees and hips may decide to fail as well. When I am 80 my body might tell me it's done walking. Who knows? My quality of life later on will more than likely be affected for the worse. Or if I take care of my body now, the 60 year old version of me will look back and thank the 25 year old version of me because of the decisions and choices I'm making now.

I want my "one chance" to be one of no regret as one of the worst feelings (in my opinion) is the taste of regret.

2. The mini steps to get out of a hump.

a. Re-focus.
b. Remember what brought you to the place of wanting to change your life.
c. Revise micro goals into something realistic. Many times we over-estimate ourselves (I do this all the time) and set unattainable goals. The only constant in life is change. Situations change thus micro goals need changed along with life.
d. Find someone or something that inspires you to keep going. I think this is very useful as certain people or situations motivate me such as (as cheesy as this may sound) watching American Gladiators. The show is all about overcoming obstacles and reaching for a goal. Something else that really inspires me is being around healthy people. People that eat right and exercise. I see how they "have it together" and strive for that same situation for my own life.
e. Get to know someone. I find I do this a lot. I try to find people that I can relate to that I want to strive to be like. Maybe I like their character, a personality characteristic, or the way they handle tough situations. I study them (although they never know this) and work to figure them out. I ask them questions to further my investigation which helps me understand how to improve myself more.
e. Check out Gretchen's list of keeping New Year's Resolutions