You are what you believe

All too often I hear these words: “I can’t do that” or “Man, that is just too hard” or even “I could probably do that someday, but I am just not ready to right now” All of these are excuses. Whether you believe them or not you are right. When you are making excuses for not trying new things or even not trying to make yourself better, you are putting limitations on yourself that no one else has put there.

Now I am not saying that if you believe you are going to be the next president and you have never worked in politics before and you are like 50 that it’s going to happen. What i am saying is, if you have a realistic goal in mind and you work hard to achieve that goal, you better believe you can do it. The only thing that would stand in your way is yourself. It takes as much time to make up excuses and stick with them as it does to actually work on your goals and achieve them. I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when you can see the potential in someone to achieve great things and what they seem to be the best at doing is making excuses.

When I started to work with Advocare a few years ago, my goal was to start using the supplements to have a more healthy lifestyle. I bought into the 24 Day Jumpstart, and Spark and even the supplements that helped with building healthier muscles. I bought into it because I believed they could help me, and after researching the company, loved the values they had. Those supplements have helped me greatly and because of them people noticed and started asking me what it was I was doing differently. I was excited to talk, to help, and to listen to them. I knew that these products could help them based on the knowledge that they helped me. The problem that came up was the excuses. They wanted to have what I had, but when they found out that it still took work and that the products were not “miracle pills” the excuses started flying. Now don’t get me wrong there were some people that bought into the products and loved them and still use them. For most though when asked if they would “put their money where their mouth was” they didn’t end up doing it. It wasn’t a money thing, it was a motivation thing, they couldn’t believe that they could actually change because the mountain they saw in front of them was too big to see over.

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A few years back my husband and I took our kids to Yosemite National Park to go camping with our extended family. We are a family that loves to hike and be outdoors. Yosemite has a lot of places to hike and we did those hikes, but the one that we knew would be the biggest of all hikes was to the top of Yosemite Falls. This is about 8 miles round trip and is considered a very strenuous hike. We started early in the morning with high spirits looking forward to the adventure. After the first mile there was some groaning about the constant uphill. Mile two and three took a lot of convincing that the view would be amazing and that they would feel so good that they accomplished the hike. Then the 4th mile hit, for the most part it was switch backs in the blazing sun and really no shade. My middle daughter at this point put the breaks on. She was not going any further, she was done listening to the encouragements, she was done walking, done talking, she was just done. My husband and older daughter kept going, and I stayed back and found a little bit of shade to sit with her. At that moment she could not believe that she could accomplish this goal. We were close enough to see that the top was maybe 30-45 minutes away but her brain said no. So we sat, we talked, we fueled up with snacks, and then she got up and very slowly we would walk and make our goals be to get to the next spot of shade. It took us about an hour to finally make it to the top, but we made it! Once we took in the sight of the valley below and the rushing waterfall, we found a spot by the river to take off our shoes and socks and put our feet in. The look of accomplishment on her face as well as my older daughter’s face was worth every sweat drop that rolled off our heads.

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On that hike we pushed them, because we knew that it would be worth it. Excuses could have been made, (and the girls did try) but in the end they dug deep and made it. The feeling of accomplishment for them as well and my husband and I was there and it felt great, but the lesson was learned too. Work hard, believe in yourself, don’t give up and try your hardest. These will be with them for a very long time and will be passed to their kids.

Challenges are all around us, new adventures are there to be had. Even if it’s a change of lifestyle, wanting to get healthier, seeing that mountain and having the courage to climb it, jumping out of a plane, or even moving somewhere new and unknown. They are there in all shapes and forms. The one and only thing that holds people back is the excuse. It’s too hard, I have no money, I am nervous, it’s not the right time….the list can go on and on.

My challenges consist of:

• new training in hospice and palliative care for animals so that I can eventually make my own schedules and fill in a niche that just does not exist in my small town.
• I can’t wait to have my blog have a good healthy following, I had to step out in faith and write that first blog though.
• The challenge of being debt free is one that my husband and I are working on right now.
• Currently and most importantly the challenge of helping our kids through this tough and weird time while also trying to safely go to work to help pets stay healthy.

So what are your challenges? What is it that holds you back? How can I help you move forward to reach your goals? I would love to see your comments. If this has helped encouraged you and you know of someone that could use encouragement from this blog please share. Until next time:

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals

Zig Ziglar