What Would You Do?

At the beginning of 2018, I read a book that changed my life. I was scrolling through Pinterest looking for a books worth reading. There nestled among about 20 other books was a book called How To Stop Time. I would not say this particular book was a stellar read, and I can't say I even really enjoyed the story as a whole. However, there was one line in the book that really resonated with me.

"What would you do if you had no fear?"

What would that look like for me? What WAS I fearful of doing? After taking sincere internal look, I thought I might travel more (?) At the time, it was a question. I thought I WAS living without fear. I thought I was happy and I thought I was healthy. Oh, how wrong I was!

Then, perhaps coincidentally or perhaps the universe was working in a mysterious way, my friend asked if I wanted to to a savage race. I said yes, but let me tell you the fear in my heart said, "No! No! No!"

In preparation for the race, I stepped out of my comfort zone and started going to a real gym (AHH the horror!), and found out it wasn't as bad as I had envisioned. I also started running on a schedule, and I found out I am actually kind of good at it. I also made a better relationship with my sister who is also my gym partner. We have a lot of fun together now, but it took training for this race to bring us together. Now we're friends outside of the gym and we always have a lot of fun together.

I noticed changes in my appearance and health. Things I hadn't realized were wrong. My blood pressure was high, but I was in denial and thought everything was OK. I had baby weight that I had convinced myself was just never going to go away. I didn't realize how unhappy all those things were making me. The change was so gradual that I only notice my unhappiness now that I'm looking back!

We didn't win our race, but we had a lot of fun competing and I'm really proud of myself for just getting out and doing it. We ended up really dirty, tired and hungry, but I'm glad I have this memory with these awesome people.

This was BEFORE the race! Notice how clean we all are!

Since the race, I've gotten a Personal Training Certification and I run a local bootcamp in the evenings (Brevard Bootcamp to be exact!) I have the most wonderful clients that are also my friends. Now I'm studying to be a nutrition coach so I can help people get in shape and eat healthier.

In retrospect, I know that I was letting fear dictate a lot of my choices. I did lots of things in 2018 that I normally wouldn't have chosen to do. We did a road trip to see my brother-in-law get married, and we ended up having a wonderful time. We went on a camping trip to a place I'd never been. We made some wonderful memories as a family. From the beginning to the end of the year, my life changed in such unexpected ways all because I don't give fear power over my choices anymore.

If you take nothing else from this, I urge you to question yourself: what you would do if you had no fear?

It could seriously change your life. It certainly did mine!