I am a 44 year old wife, mom and athlete. I started running in high school and have loved it ever since. As I got older, I had to stop running every day so I added in weight training and all sorts of fun work-outs like Insanity, P90X and Turbo Fire. I'm a certified personal trainer and I love all aspects of fitness.
I know that a few (like 1000+) bloggers have teamed up to share about compassion today. While I’m horrible at link-ups (mostly because I don’t ever feel like I’m doing it right) I thought I would participate in my own way.
Compassion is defined as the emotion that one feels in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help.
There are so many ways that we can show compassion every single day! I think sometimes we feel like it has to be a grand gesture but it can be as simple as offering to pay for the person in front of you in the checkout line when their card is declined and they are completely at a loss for what to do.
I saw an incredible example of compassion last fall when a women threw a life celebration party for her mother-in-law who was battling cancer. She brought in her (the mother-in-law’s) favorite Blue-Grass band and did all the food and planning. Sadly, the guest of honor was too sick to attend the party but they still celebrated her life!!!! (and the band was able to go to her home and play for her!)
I think we all have many examples of times when someone has showed incredible compassion. But, just as important are those small everyday displays of compassion!!
Do you have a story about a time that you witnessed a genuine showing of compassion? How can you show compassion to someone today?
Currently I’m running more than normal for me so I thought it would be fun to share some of the things that motivate me.
Jordan went to his first dance a few weeks ago – a huge step out of his comfort zone! I’m going to borrow some of his confidence for my upcoming runs!!!
We need to make sure that everyday has some fun. My Mema who I miss every day and my sweet niece Isabel are a great reminder of just being silly and having fun!!
2 of my favorite guys sending each other off for another great day!! Every day should start with excitement as we embrace a new day!
My Poppa was such a great example of being happy and content in each moment!! 98 years of life taught him that the best things were the simple things!
While I’m running I think of my boys a lot! Now that they are runners I just want to be an example for them.
Another view of Jordan showing confidence! Actually this is just part of the whole picture. For his birthday in November (when he turned 16!) we gave him sunglasses to go with his new car – I think some of the confidence needed to be on our part as we let him start driving everywhere!!!
Chris really is the hero in our family. He shows me everyday what it means to be a true life hero!!!
So this one was just funny!!! Hunter was being a goof over the weekend so I took this picture and Jordan turned it into a motivational picture!!
Another silly one but still a reminder that we are all tougher than we think!!
And, my favorite – without love there wouldn’t be a reason for all that we do!!!
How would you caption your motivational picture?
Happy Monday!!!
(Thanks to Jordan for teaching me how to make my own motivational pictures!!!)
start positionpull in right legswitch and pull in left leg
See why it’s called a “march”? I tried to make sure that I was keeping my hips up the entire time – this was a challenge!!
And, I did my 2nd 20 mile run of the week. Funny thing is the time was almost the same (2:33.50) – just 6 seconds faster than Tuesday! I ended up doing 1.5 miles as a cool-down this time for 21.5 total.
Friday 2/13 – 45 side lunge skaters – staying low the entire time.
lunge to the leftlunge right
The goal on this move is to stay low and work your quads the entire time. (a right-left lunge = 1 rep) And, I stood in the sunbeam – because it was warm!!!
I did a workout I hadn’t done in awhile – Denise Austin – Get Fit Fast. One thing I really like about Denise Austin’s workouts is she features “real” looking people – people who look like me with hips and not a 6-pack!!!
Saturday 2/14 – 45 dead bugs while on wobble ball with shoulders slightly off ground.
readydrop right legdrop left leg
I liked this move but actually felt it much more in my hip flexors than in my core. (right-left drop = 1 rep)
Today was my final run of the week – 5 miles in 39:21 followed by an easy cool down mile.
I’m happy that I met my running goal for the week – 50 miles hard and 4 easy miles to get over the 50 mile mark for the week. The next 2 weeks I’m hoping to get my mileage a little higher and then I will ease up some.
When the boys were little I didn’t want them saying “I don’t like that” about food I had taken the time to make. So we started saying, “It’s not my favorite” if we didn’t really care for something.
So, today I’m sharing some things that Aren’t My Favorite!!!
Green Peas – I didn’t even feed peas to my boys when they were babies because I can’t stand the smell of them!!! When we have Chinese food I actually pick the peas out of my fried rice.
Snow – I know a lot of people see snow and think it’s so pretty. I see it and just think COLD!!! There is really nothing about snow that I enjoy!!!
Slow/Idiot Drivers – I get that not everyone likes to drive fast (weird but….). However, people who drive under the speed limit drive me crazy!! And, if that person turns out right in front of me and then pokes along – I get cranky!!!
Action Movies – I just can’t get into them!! I like happy feel good movies or none at all! Any sports movie based on a true story is great!! Chick Flicks? Love them!
Running Injuries – Any runner or athlete will tell you that being injured is the worst!!! Thankfully I’m not injured right now but I know several people who are and I know it sucks for them!!!
What are some things that “aren’t your favorite?” Does it bug you when you make dinner (or any meal) and someone says, “I don’t like this.”?
Lately I feel like I’ve been struggling in lots of ways. I had great intentions to make 2015 a banner year and I feel like about 2 weeks into the year I was already in a rut.
But, a couple weeks ago I took the first step to getting out of this rut. I signed up for a workshop with the incredible Tara (Family Sport Life) called From Stuck to Unstoppable. It is a 6 week small group coaching approach and so far (just over a week in) I’m loving it.
This year I really want to take our event venue to a different level. I feel like last year was all about learning what I was doing both as a business owner and with a venue.
I have so many ideas and things I want to do and try but I tend to get in my own way because I’m afraid of failure and rejection when I reach out to people. I know that not every idea will work and not every person I approach will be receptive and that has me sort of stuck!
Sometimes I feel like the little things that I do aren’t helping but I know this is like an ultra than a spring – slow and steady is the way to go!!!
And, I know that even some of my “great” ideas won’t work. So I just need to brace myself and start acting on these ideas!!!
So, instead of thinking of ideas and ways they might fail I’m going to take my ideas and put some action behind them!!! Some will fail and others might actually turn out to be really great – I won’t know until I try!!!
Do you ever let fear of failure hold you back from acting? How do you motivate yourself into taking action?
