Thoughts on a plane bound for home...

As I sit on a plane on my way back home from my first weekend being a StrongFirst team leader at a certification, I reflect. I look out the window at the passing majestic mountains that are truly breath taking and I have lots of time to think about the past 7 years and what has changed in my life. When I was a little girl, I had two desires in life, two things I “wanted to be when I grow up”. One was a mom. I just love children and I couldn’t wait to have one of my own. I was blessed with 2 beautiful children, six years apart and each one had their own child hood. The second thing I wanted to be was a teacher. I spent countless hours setting up my stuffed animals in front of a chalk board teaching them. I would picture myself in front of a class room full of students and teaching away! My ambitions were never to go to college and I have come to accept that it’s ok. I tried college and I just didn’t have the attention to focus on it. My mind would wonder to other things, things that were really not important, but college wasn’t important to me. I wanted to be doing something instead of reading a book or studying some notes that I didn’t understand any way. I didn’t really have a hard life without an education. I was able to support myself making a decent wage starting in a factory and proceeding to an office and to a couple doctor office jobs. My favorite job was working in a warehouse where I had to do physical, hard work. That should have been a clue to me.

Fast forward seven years. I was in a rocky marriage and was very unhappy. I didn’t realize how unhappy I was until I was out of the marriage and one day I finally cried. At that moment, I realized how important it was that I left that unhappy marriage and moved on. I met an incredible man who needed me as much as I needed him. We married and have build a marriage that some are envious of. A marriage that is bonded between two people who respect, honor, cherish, nurturer and most of all are committed in love to each other. We are truly the male and female version of each other, also the opposite of each other in different ways. (that makes for a lot of laughter and comedy in trying and un-trying times.) He introduced me to these balls of steel with a handle on them called a kettlebell. At first, I wasn’t fond of the idea. I tried the class what was taught at the Mansfield Y and didn’t go back for 3 months until I was asked to be the “on staff” instructor for the class. I started thinking, how bad can it be?? Lift weights and get paid? I would have to be out of my mind not to do that!

Fast forward to present, March 27, 2017. Riding home in what my husband calls, “a giant tube of pain”. My eyes are tired and burning from lack of sleep. You see, this past weekend, I was part of a greater purpose. I built a “tool box” of strength to other people who have a passion for kettlebells as I do. Teaching at a level I StrongFirst certification was a dream come true for me. I was entrusted by our chairman Pavel Tsatsouline, to pass on the principals of StrongFirst straight and well. I gave to people what had been given to me so many years ago, an opportunity to become something I wasn’t…a teacher, a teacher of strength. I truly love what I do. Our motto is “Strength has a greater purpose.” The purposes are multiple and I don’t have enough strength in my eyes to keep them open to list them all. But the most important is humility. Humility gives you the strength to give to other people. One without humility, one who is full of themselves has nothing to give because they can’t give up. One of the greatest strengths one can have is the ability to be humble. It is also a difficult skill that once is learned, you will spend a life time chasing to master it. I love what I do and I most of all love the strong, strong willed person I have become. Continuing to chase humility is discipline. Humility will take you far in life. It will open doors and make you step outside your box. It will also allow others into your life that are truly amazing and remove others that are truly poison. There is so much more I can add to this, but for now I must nap, for my eyes are burning and soon we will land. A life that is full of humility and servant hood is a powerful life. Look for it, find it, embrace it…live it.