Fitness Classes

This is a sign that hung in my college football weight room. It meant a lot to me. It's what motivated me to put in extra work and ultimately become a scholarship athlete and starting offensive guard on the football team. It wasn't always like that though. My life could have been drastically different - and not for the better.

Today marks Day 11 of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Ever since I was a kid, these games have been awe inspiring to watch. In second grade, I was so inspired that I wanted to be just like Nadia Comaneci. I begged my mom to sign me up for gymnastics. Aside from some random cartwheels on the playground, a failed attempt at the uneven bars was my first and last stab at gymnastics! Since then, the closest I've ever come to being in the Olympics is running a marathon.

Inflammation is not always bad. We need some inflammation Inflammation is actually a process that helps the body fight things that could cause harm like infections and injuries. It's a healing process that is completely normal and healthy. However, too much inflammation over time keeps the body in a constant state of alert and can begin to negatively impact organs and tissues. Like many things, inflammation is good to a point and when it crosses the line and becomes chronic and excessive, you now have a problem.

Too often people sell themselves short or let limiting beliefs stop them in their tracks. I love this passage from Proverbs 18:21: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." As you put limitations on yourself, you are really speaking death over yourself.

One of my favorite teachings in the Bible is from Jesus's legendary sermon on the mount. In Matthew 7:3-5 he says "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's" Just look at our society. Criticizing and ripping others to shreds is a national past time. It is even celebrated. Sadly, there are whole shows based on this.

Proverbs 22:13: The lazy man says, "there is a lion without, I shall be killed in the streets." Too often we let the imaginary "lions" in our life keep us in the "playing it safe" zone. Playing it safe is one of the riskiest things we can do. I can't think of many worse things than being 3, 5...10 years down the road and seeing ZERO progress in life.

When someone like Joe Mauer makes it into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, that’s worth talking about. I've had the privilege of knowing him when he was a kid! The first 5 years of my teaching career was at a neighborhood Catholic school in Saint Paul. He was a 4th grader at the time and I taught Pre-K so he wasn't in my class. But as the years went on, it was easy to know him because of his genuine kindness, talent on the teams and leadership within the school.

Back when I worked at the big corporate gym there was a guy named Dan. He baffled me. I worked there for 9.5 years and he did the EXACT SAME routine over and over and over again. Nothing ever changed for Dan. Including the way he looked. He always did the same exercises, sets, and reps. Again and again and again. I wanted to pull my hair out. What's the big deal? Why do I care? Because I just can't understand how you do something and do not strive to improve in it. Why would you put so much time into something only to go....NOWHERE

I've got an interesting thought for you today. "To do" or "To be." We all tend to go through our days with a "To Do" list. Executing tasks all throughout the day...work, home...some of them just mindless busy work that's not really serving a purpose in our lives. It's a wonder we tend to feel empty and unfulfilled at the end of each day. What if we changed our thinking....what if our "to do" list becomes a "to be" list. A list all about how we want to be and why. This is truly much more powerful. In 2024, I'm committing to shift from just knocking out all goals to doing things that will reinforce who I want TO BE.