Debbie Ford

 "A warrior’s daily prayer is to have the strength to love all of herself, the courage to listen to what she is guided to do, and the confidence to go out, stand tall, and deliver her gifts to the world."

 Debbie Ford posted this to her Facebook page on Feb. 13.

On Feb. 17 she left this earth due to cancer. Our prayers and love call out for her on her journey. May the Powers that Be Bless her soul immensely for the love and guidance she has shared with us! ♥

"The great tragedy of life is not death itself, but rather what dies within us while we live." -Norman Cousins

Building Mastery

Back again! In case you have not figured it out I am not a master blogger. :) I am just an ordinary human on a journey, who believes that in sharing, I can help you - because we are all in this thing called life, together.

I am currently in a challenge group with some awesome Team Beach Body buddies and I have been thinking about the past failures we talk about. We acknowledge that it is not really failure, if you don’t give up your goal; you re-focus, and go at it again. Granted early in the process the time frame before giving it another go tends to be longer and we finds more ease tagging those times as failure. They really aren’t though; you know mastery is gained with experience and the passing of time, and that is what we are doing, building mastery.

Mastery – 1. Comprehensive knowledge or skill in a subject or accomplishment. 2. The action or process of mastering a subject or accomplishment.

We need to get out of the mind set that we have let ourselves down, that we have failed!  It is so much easier to regroup if you give yourself understanding at the same time, look at the big picture and acknowledge the process. Know that life is really just a big example of an exercise program. :) You take yourself through the first round doing all you can do. Then to the second round and you can do more, and then more …building mastery is what you are doing!

No one can harm you, not even your own worst enemy, as much as your own mind untrained. And no one can help you, not even your most loving mother and father, as much as your own mind well-trained.
The Buddha

What do you want in 2013?

A friend asked me why I was so harsh in my last post, and why aren’t I writing about the things you would expect a personal trainer to write about. They really are a good friend and have my best interests at heart. I explained I did not think my post was harsh, I did not send it out with the intention of “get off your behind and do now, or you are toast – you die!”  It is a simple fact of life regarding which direction you are going. Two days after I wrote the post I saw a popular motivational utube short “TGIM”,  he emotionally talks about deciding what you want in 2013 and your will. It is a great piece, but there is one part he did have quite right. He said, “you can choose to stay where you are”.  This is a common thought and the point I wanted to make was, we cannot stay where we are, it goes against a natural principal of life. 

Why am I not writing about the things you would expect someone interested in exercise and fitness to write about? I am not going to write about how many exercises for what goals, or this benefit vs this benefit of exercise, because I believe the motivational self talk part is the most important part of making habitual life changes. That is the way I teach fitness. I have a different viewpoint because I did not come from a place of being physical all my life. It is easy to give a person the right workout for them, it becomes routine after a while.  The difficult part, the motivation, I can’t do for you, but I can tell you what has worked for me and help you to find what you really want, in 2013, and for the rest of your life.

Grow or Die

How is that for a big enough why?  I have been reminded of this three times from different sources in the past week. Spiritual synchronicity.

I know it is true, everything in life is either growing or decaying. There is no such thing as staying the same. We forget sometimes that applies to us and our personal development as well.

I've Got a Never Ending New Year's Day for You ...

Happy New Year and Kudos to all who are focusing for another shot at your goals!

What is a Never Ending New Year? It is knowing that " This thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down -Mary Pickford".  It is life, and we find the joy in the journey. We aim for our goals, sometimes we fall short of the target, but we take what we learned from our last shot and aim again. Feeling better each time, yes, really you do. :-)

Moving to a new habitual state of being takes focus, and it takes trial and error. The majority of the folks you see singing the praises of physical fitness have been in that state for most of the beginning of their life, and when they attempt to "step it up" it usually goes by the wayside just as many other people's goals and desires. I have seen that scenario over and over in the gym. I am not saying anything negative regarding their efforts, I only want to note the experience that I have which helped to form my point of view. Changing habitual patterns takes a big reason why!


Although I have maintained the majority of my weight loss, being able to stay at my leanest has not happened. I have kept a steady fitness progression, but I have always fell back to more fat than I wanted to. Since my last move, and working in an office job instead of the gym, my time training has decreased and my fat has increased even more. I have been disappointed with myself.

To my family, friends, clients, in allowing myself to continue to be less than the person I want to be, I also let you down.  I am making a New Years commitment, that will change now.