Inspiration

It's that time of year again folks. Every 24 Hour Fitness, Gold's Gym, and YMCA is filled to the brim with people chasing after that elusive creature that appears when the calendar flips over from December to January. You know what I'm talking about, New Year's Resolutions.

What does that have to do with inspiration you ask? Here's what...

People resolve to change their habits or lives and they choose January 1, as the day to start. Be it dire warnings from a health care provider or and example set by someone close to them that they want to emulate, that is inspiration and it comes in many, many forms.

Now, I'd like to state for the record that I'm not a fan of the whole resolution thing, but I do start each year with goals: run 1500 miles this year, get my weight down before the marathon in April, exercise better fiscal responsibility, etc, but I don't view those as resolutions.

However, I am taking some inspiration from some people. The last few months of 2008 I felt like I had no control over my schedule. I felt a day late and a dollar short all the time. I struggled to get my runs in, and in general felt over-freakin'-whelmed a lot of the time. So to take a quote from T, I'm taking action steps dammit!

I'm not making excuses anymore about not being able to get my runs in, 'cause we have a treadmill in the basement and if some friends of mine can do it, so can I. What is it (yeah, sometimes I ramble, but then I'm composing this at work and I keep getting interrupted) you ask?

I'm taking some of my inspiration from this friend. See the first line of the fourth paragraph about getting up at 4:30 a.m.? I'm not getting up that early, but a goal this year is to get all of my runs done before I go to work, even if I have to get up at 5:30, like today, in order to accomplish it. If she can do it, I can to...

So the whole point of this is that inspiration comes in all shapes and sizes. It could be the friend who gives up a successful career as an athletic trainer to go back to school because they feel that's where they can make the most difference. It could be the family member battling against that fucking disease cancer and trying to make the most of the life they have left. It could be the school teacher trying to reach the kids in their classroom. Hell, as far as I know I might even be the inspiration for someone.

The key thing though? It's not recognizing that inspiration is there, it's acting on it. So I am. Up early. Trying to learn new things that will allow me to make a bigger impact at work. Trying to just be a better version of me.