Saturday, May 23, 2009

Bring your daughter to the gym day!

I brought my 8-year old daughter to the gym with me this morning - she was curious to see what my workouts are like, and I promised her that she could bring the Flip video with us to try to tape some of my workouts. I think she had a great time, she got alot more footage of herself talking than me working out, but I'll do my best to edit some of the video to piece a mix together. On the way home, I asked her what she thought of the gym and my workouts. She said everyone was really nice, and it was a really long workout - she said she was tired at the end. I laughed and told her to imagine how tired she'd be if she was the one actually working out! :)

Kurt shared the "secret" he mentioned earlier this week in his blog with me ... it's a new approach to my nutrition, and I am going to get started with it tomorrow. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to reach my goal, and will do whatever my trainers tell me to do - after all, they're the experts!

One of my favorite things at FT - Brookfield is a portion of the gym that has motivational and inspirational quotes posted on it. I read them every day while I'm on the elliptical, and they never cease to move me. The following quote is one of my favorites ...

"Hidden inside each of us is an extraordinary force."

I can't help but smile when I say it to myself, because this simple quote is the key to my success ... once I really and truly began to believe in myself, the possibilities were endless. If you think you can't do something, you probably can't. But if you believe you can, then you most likely will succeed.

I'm also reminded of a Chinese fable my mother would tell me, with a similar message ...

Once upon a time there was a stone cutter. The stone cutter lived in a land where a life of privilege meant being powerful. Looking at his life he decided that he was unsatisfied with the way things were and so he set out to become the most powerful thing in the land.

Looking around his land he wondered to himself what is it to be powerful. Looking up he saw the sun shining down on all the land. "The sun must be the most powerful thing that there is, for it shines down on all things, and all things grow from its touch." So he became the sun.

Days later, as he shone his power down on the inhabitants of the land, there came a cloud which passed beneath him obstructing his brilliance. Frustrated he realized that the sun was not the most powerful thing in the land, if a simple cloud could interrupt his greatness. So he became a cloud, in fact, he became the most powerful storm that the world had ever seen.

And so he blew his rain and lightning, and resounded with thunder all over the land, demonstrating that he was the most powerful of all. Until one day he came across a boulder.

Down and down he poured rain and his thunder roared, lightning flashed and filled the sky, striking the ground near the boulder. His winds blew and blew and blew, and yet, despite all his efforts, he could not budge the boulder. Frustrated again, he realized that the storm was not the most powerful thing in the land, rather it must be the boulder. So he became the boulder.

For days he sat, unmovable, and impassive, demonstrating his power, until one day, a stone cutter came and chiseled him to bits.

Moral: Sometimes the most important thing to remember is that you have everything you already need, right inside of you.

xo
Michelle

"We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are." Jim Rohn

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