Birthday Blog: Volume 42.
To be 100% honest I am today in a much different place than I thought I would have been one year ago. It really has been a year of change.
To me a birthday is not a time to celebrate. I choose to celebrate each of the 365 trips around the sun. It's just a day really.
To me the celebration is often just an excuse to forget about whats wrong with the other 364 days for just one day. I'm not going to roll like that.
Today is my 42nd birthday and it is a day, in my mind, for reflection.
I have journals dating back to 1987. Many of my journals have long gaps of no entrees. Mid-April, however, is a very popular time to year for me to write.... to reflect.
I have published blogs on April 22nd the last couple of years. THIS ONE was on my 40th birthday, and THIS ONE one my 41st birthday.
Why should 42 be different?
I am going to be a little transparent today and hopefully give you some value. It is always my hope that at least one person will read what a write and find hope and inspiration. It might even be YOU.
My life went in a very different but very positive direction in my 42nd year. Certain people in my life helped to make that happen. I am very thankful for those people.
At this time last year Teresa and I had put a HUGE effort into growing our coaching business. We tried really hard and we weren't having much success. Maybe it was our location, maybe it was us, maybe it was a lot of factors but it just wasn't happening. Our AdvoCare business was almost paying our bills so the goal was to eventually not doing the coaching and simple just work our AdvoCare business.
Yes. You read right. I wanted to get away from training people.
That would have been a stupid decision.
I guess at the time I just didn't have a vision for how I could grow our business is the location that we were at. Masses of people simply didn't want to workout at a church gymnasium with very little equipment. Looking back I can't blame them. We had outgrown our facility.
We made the decision in May of last year to begin the transition out of owning a coaching business by locking arms with some friends of ours that had a stand alone facility.
We would continue to teach classes and train people but we set a timetable to no longer be owners of "Your Best Fitness Coach".
Around that time a lady named Emily Wood entered out lives as a client and then as a close friend. She became a piece of puzzle that would would desperately need as the months wore on. More on that later.
As we integrate our program into the other gym a couple of things became clear.
Well. Actually is was more than a couple of things become clear. The main point of clarity was that this was that the situation was never going to work long term.
This let to Teresa and I taking a HARD look at what we really wanted. Truly our purpose became clear. We needed to live to help people by offering them our brand of fitness with no excuses and with no apologies; to hell with those that didn't see our vision
We knew that we needed to own a gym and we knew that we needed to continue to serve people and to change lives.
Problem: we had no money and we had no credit.
Remember the puzzle that I mentioned earlier? We know what we wanted to do but we also accepted that we would need help. We found help in our amazing partners Gidget and Chris Blunt and Emily Wood. They brought help to the table when we needed it and we are forever thankful.
A vision was formed. I told them in one of our first meeting that if we created something special the people would show up. We didn't have names or faces but I knew, like in Field of Dreams, "If we build it they will come..."
As expected at the end of September, the gym that we were a part of, asked Teresa and I NOT to join them as they, get this, moved to the church that we used to do our program at. The irony that must be pretty clear....
On October 6th with people that supported my, and partially because of people that didn't support me and had a different vision, we were able to realize our dream of opening our own gym when we created No Limits Fitness.
What started with an idea and 18 members has turned into a community of champions over 50 strong.
Now that is my life: I teach classes at No Limits Fitness, I personal train clients, I share AdvoCare with people and I do it with AMAZING partners and friends and I do it with my champion wife by my side 24 hours per day.
So what lesson can YOU take out of my personal year long journey today?
1. Don't give up on your dreams....even.... and ESPECIALLY... if you don't know what they are yet.
2. Harvest the blessings of people that support you but also learn to appreciate the lessons from those that don't.
The 3rd lesson?
Another trip around the sun. I have have changed my career path. I may not run as much and I may lift more weights. I may have some new friendships and I may look a little older....
3. But I am still me. I am still the best me that there can be and today, despite the challenges, I regret NOTHING.
If you got value from this today please share. Maybe one of your friends needs a little hope...
Rick Copley, No Limits Fitness | www.NoLimitsFitness.com
AdvoCare Independent Distributor
24 Day Challenge
My AdvoCare Story
rick@nolimitsfitness.me | 352-989-6795
