To Be or Not to Be

Liz is hosting a fearless link up. It isn’t just a today thing, you can link your story up at any time. You see, Liz is one of the most motivational bloggers I know. She keeps it real, shares her struggles, her victories, and her story with the interwebz day in and day out. She stays true to herself and has so much passion and drive. To me, she screams fearless.

I knew I had to link up, but to be honest, I didn’t think the word fearless described me at all. In fact, fear tends to hold me back sometimes. Fear of failure, even fear of success are very real to me.

But then I started thinking, and I am fearless in some ways. As a blogger, aren’t we all a little fearless? Coming here every day and sharing our lives with the world wide web. We tell stories, we laugh, we have our serious moments. We are completely vulnerable to criticism and mean comments.

If I hadn’t started blogging, I wouldn’t have “met” all of you amazing people! I interact more with my blogging friends than I do my IRL friends! And you know what, some of my blogging friends are becoming my IRL friends!!! I have overcome some of my social anxiety and have actually met a few wonderful people in person!

Then I got to thinking more. When Chris and I started dating, he lived in Birmingham and I lived in Atlanta. After one month, we were engaged and I made the decision to find a job in Birmingham and move. Some people might have thought that was crazy talk, but the fear of taking the chance was squashed by love and the hope for true happiness. If I weren’t fearless in that situation, I would never have found true love.

Then there is this journey that I am on to be the healthiest me that I can be. For months I would say that as soon as this happens or as soon as we get some exercise equipment in the house, I would start working out. It was always something in the future. The truth is, you don’t need anything to work out. Just open your front door and get moving. Get down on the ground and do some crunches. Do what you have to do. Hell, Meighan picked up cans of squash and started lifting weights the other day. The thing was, I was afraid to start.

What if I started and didn’t see results? What if I gave up and quit? What if someone saw me struggling during the work out? There were so many thoughts that flooded my mind that it crippled me from starting. One day I woke up and said enough!!!! I can’t keep wishing for something to be to actually happen if I don’t actually put the work in. I got up the very next morning and started the Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. A program that I had started and quit two times before.

I just did it. I woke up every morning and did the work outs. I hated every minute of it, but I felt so proud when 6:00am rolled around and I had already had my work out in for the day. Once I finished that program, I moved on to RIPPED in 30, then T25 and today I started the last phase of Body Beast. I can’t believe that a year later I am still waking up every morning during the week at 4:30am and working out. That I am seeing definition in my arms, my back and my legs that I haven’t seen since college. That I am getting stronger every day. That I cut the entire back yard last weekend without struggle. I can’t believe that I joke around with Kathy and a few others in “bro talk.” I am freaking lifting weights every morning. Who am I?

That my friends, is what fearless means to me. To be able to do something that you didn’t think was possible. To overcome the fear and doubt that you have and put your heart in to it. Am I completely fearless? Hell no. But you know what, it is a start. I have determination my friends. I have the drive to want everything that I could dream of. I think if we take baby steps, we can do anything that we dreamed we can.

Now that I am fearless in love and on my journey to be healthy….I hope that I can channel that into other aspects of my life. I have dreams my friend, and I am going to over come the fear and make it realty!

If you need some inspiration in your life, or want to read some motivational stories, go hop over to Liz’s Fearless page. I have a feeling that we are going to read some incredible stories today.