Tuesday Motivation

Good morning, wonderwomen :)

Today's musings are based on three recent things in my life have all centered around living life ALIVE.  First, a family friend passed away last night (Jeanie on this challenge knows him, too), earlier than he should have left this life.   Second, I finished an audio book over our long weekend of driving, Lance Armstrong's story "It's Not About The Bike." He battled and won against cancer and all medical odds, and won the Tour de France (just one time when this book was written) as a greater appreciator of life and human capacity.  Third, I ran a marathon last Saturday, and amongst all the crazy and funny things I heard there, I liked best at the very beginning before we started running when an announcer was commenting on the brisk weather saying, "It's mornings like this that you know you're alive."

Life life ALIVE!  Don't sleep through life, don't procrastinate things you've always wanted to do, don't throw away time being complacent, frumpy, overweight, lazy, or unhappy.  Change something.  Do something to make it unmistakable to yourself that you are ALIVE! 

Here's an excerpt from the very end of Lance's story, and it talks about cancer survival, but think of it in light of this challenge and the fight for our fitness, health, and longevity: “The definition of courage is a quality of spirit that enables one to encounter danger with firmness and without fear…Children have higher cure rates…Adults know too much about failure. They’re more cynical and resigned, fearful….If children have the ability to ignore odds and percentages, maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other chance is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: Give up or fight like hell…anything’s possible…you have to believe and you have to fight…by fight I mean arm yourself with all the available information…the more informed and empowered patient has a better chance at long term survival…What if I had lost?...I still believe I would have gained something in the struggle…In what time I had left, I would have been a more complete, intelligent, and compassionate man, and therefore more alive. The one thing the illness has convinced me of beyond all doubt, more than any experience I’ve had as an athlete, is that we are much better than we know. We have unrealized capacities that sometimes only emerge in a crisis. So if there is a purpose to the suffering that is cancer, it is this: it is meant to improve us.”

From that, I take away the message that we can be overweight, lazy, come up with excuses, become resigned to the fact that we'll always be the way we've always been, think being fit is for other people and we'll just never acheive that OR we can "fight like hell," learn everything we can about our bodies, exercise, nutrition, and live each day with positive hope, energy, faith, and belief.  "WE ARE MUCH BETTER THAN WE KNOW. WE HAVE UNREALIZED CAPACITIES."  Yes, it's hard to day in and day out watch what we eat and find the energy to blast away calories in sweat sessions.  But you are better than you know.  You decide each day if you're going to resign or fight.  Experience and savor every second of life. Be more complete.  Be more alive.  Thank you for fighting with me!  Love you all :)  Make it a fantastic week in the challenge!  What are you going to do this week to wake up your body and show it you're alive? :)