164 Days Left

Went for a late evening jog last night with the Mrs. through scenic Coral Gables. South on Ponce de Leon, past Miracle Mile, and around Ponce Circle Park. The night life was winding down, but people still dotted the sushi restaurants and convenience stores. I wore my Vibrams which led to some foot pain since I don't wear them enough, but as a Primal practitioner I swear by barefooted-ness. I don't think I'll be running 13.1 miles with my five finger toe shoes, but who knows. The heart and lungs held up better than expected for a 2.8 mile 10:20PM run an hour after eating dinner. Upon arriving back home I did some foam rolling which exposed some pain in my quads around the knee. This is due to weightlifting and not running, but I really want a rumble roller to work out those knots. I can't substantiate the $60 price tag so I'll continue to search for a used one or beg my friends who don't use theirs to let me buy it for $30. Overall I feed confident about this upcoming running reason.

My Why

When you first join as a Beachbody coach. You are asked to determine what your "Why" is. Your why is an emotional motivating factor that drives you to do what you do. To finish arduous workouts. To deny tasty junk food. To go outside your comfort zone and accept rejection. To do the seemingly inconsequential, mundane, or repetitive things that over time if done consistently can yield significant emotional, physical, and financial rewards.

I knew that as a Christian, my why for everything should be God centered. So my why was something like "To glorify God by helping others achieve their fitness goals" or something like that. But to be honest, that didn't stir me up. Maybe that makes me a heathen; I don't know. I do know that it didn't make me want to do pushups and pullups while hungry at 10PM after a long day at work. After a few weeks, I accepted what I always knew my why to be. Freedom. 

Freedom to do whatever I want. More specifically, freedom from having to have a sedentary job in a 70 degree environment where there is even the slightest hint of having to obey for fear of losing my only stream of income. Don't get me wrong, I don't not like my job. But "not not liking" my job is different from liking my job and VERY different from loving my job. I get treated alright at work; pizza parties on Friday, short commute, reasonable hours, decent amount of time off. But ultimately, I am out of the house from 8:50AM to 6:45PM everyday. Look at this chart. I spend 251 days a year at work, 2,510 hours, 40% of my waking life.

Doing this analysis gave me a sickening feeling. That's 40% of my time I could be spending with my family who are all getting well along in years. 40% more time volunteering building things for at risk children. 40% more time with my girlfriend. 40% more time reading the Bible, exercising, writing, staring at the sky. You see, I currently trade hours for money. It isn't the best deal. But, my dream is to trade hours for an ever increasing amount of money. Multilevel marketing may give you the heebie jeebies (it still kinda does for me), but it is a business that has a very low cost of entry that you can build and instead of earning at a linear rate (e.g. $10.75 an hour), you can earn at an exponential rate (e.g. -$90 first month, -$60 second month, $30 third month, $1,200 13th month). At my current job, when I work more efficiently, produce more, and work harder, I get paid the same. With BB when I do all those I (hopefully) get paid more. 

More money = more time 

More time = more flexibility to travel 

more time = richer relationships 

more time = more exercise = longer life expectancy

more time = more reading = higher emotional health 

more time = ability to help others in need

What if I made enough money that I could hire a car service to drive my grandmother around town so that she can visit friends and her remaining years are stimulating and fun. What if I had enough money so that there are never financial reservations when it comes to providing emergency medical care for my next pet when he isn't doing so well. What if I made enough money to pay off my car and my condo so that the bank could not take them away from me. The thought of having to sacrifice in one of these areas because of limited resources sucks. Don't believe that "that's just the way it is". Why? It doesn't have to be that way. 

What is your why.