Life is a gift that we have an opportunity everyday to enjoy. The miracle of life and the mystery of death and what we do while we are here is up to us. We are all born with a free will and a soul to make decisions daily.
Today in America, we face high unemployment and many people are homeless. We have health care issues, terrorism threats, pollution, crowded prisons and gang issues along with many other issues. Where do we find inner strength to get through these difficult times? I believe it is a combination of things which are faith, prayer, believing in ourselves, exercise, good nutrition, staying positive and never giving up.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down at earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into Heaven and say there is no God”. It seems mankind is destroying itself with all the wars, hate, crime, polluting the planet, greed and government spending. It’s easy to see how we can be down and depressed with so much negativity in the world.
There seems to always be a constant struggle between good and evil. We see it in the news every day. Another mass shooting, abduction, murder, rape and countries threatening to go to war. In fact, here in the United States from 1960-2009, there have been over 879,000 murders, 3,578,000 rapes, 21,000,000 robberies, 32,957,000 aggravated assaults and 100,000,000 burglaries. We all live in this complex society facing challenges everyday.
By choosing to live a fitness lifestyle, we will be stronger to face challenges in our lives. We will have more confidence and discipline. We will have more inner strength and a positive winning attitude by believing in ourselves and all we can overcome. When changing your lifestyle to include eating healthier and exercising on a regular basis, you will be making a great investment in your life and the lives of those you love. Many people take better care of their pets or cars than their bodies. If we don’t take time to get an annual check up with our physician, include daily exercise and eat a healthy diet, we won’t be able to live our lives at an optimal level.
Nothing is impossible with the right disposition, work ethic and knowledge. I never thought I would win titles in National and World lifting competitions. The confidence grew as I started believing in myself and educating myself as much as I could about nutrition and exercise.
No matter what came my way everyday, I needed to be positive and believe in what I wanted to achieve. I do my best to stay away from negative people as they can bring you down and hinder your success.
There are some people who have no confidence because of the others around them. For example, kids that get picked on all the time when they are young are told they will never be anything or that they are ugly. Many women in unhealthy relationships that are controlling or abusive, get broken down so much they have no self-esteem and just exist day-to-day because they are no longer strong enough to break out of the cycle of mental abuse.
We need to recognize how important our goals are and make a commitment to ourselves. Every time we face a decision, we need to ask ourselves if the choice we make will bring us closer to our goals or move us further from them. When we see the big picture, we will be able to make good choices and not just what is around us at the time. By doing this, we develop the ability to make decisions based on where we want to go with our lives when others may not have the foresight to see beyond today.
The path we choose in life is a choice. It can be a carefully thought out plan to achieve our goals, or we can fall victim to negativity and sudden impulses which causes us to go backward instead of forward. Being positive and believing is always better than succumbing to the will of others that have nothing to do with our desires for our lives. We all have hopes and dreams and it’s up to each of us to fulfill them. The power of the mind and the human spirit is very powerful.
If people never believed in something, we would have never been able to fly, reach the moon or know the earth is round. Start believing beyond boundaries today with your fitness and start seeing a brand new you both physically and emotionally. A new positive life is right there for the taking so take the first step and get started! You will be glad you did.