Girlfriends!!
I know how busy you are - just grab your cup of coffee and join me for a few brief minutes to unwrap an important message I feel inspired to share with you!
For those who have been reading my blog or have visited my facebook page, ChersFit4Life, you see alot about living with passion! Today, I want to tell you what living with passion is NOT. Living with passion is NOT living with a standard of perfection! Should you find you are continually reaching for perfection, and no doubt being disappointed with the outcome, you will miss out on a truly passionate life! While there are a few commonalities in the definitions of passion and perfection, such as excellence and determination, passion is distinctive in that it energizes with enthusiasm and can produce a happy outcome. It is entirely possible and highly advantageous to live a passionate life...without the burden of achieving perfection. BUT try to live a life of perfectionism and see how well you maintain your passion! While passion gives energy, perfectionism invites fatigue! Check your energy level!
Girls, there are many areas where this might show up in your life and mine. I remember one particular Easter. I wanted everything perfect! Didn't all good moms feel this way? There were the baskets, eggs to color and hunt and all the festivities to make it a perfect day! I made a rabbit cake for the "fun" factor and picked a book to help emphasize the true meaning of Easter. Well....as I was reading the Easter story, the boys became restless and began to agitate each other and then started fussing and laughing over the cake and who was going go get what piece. Before I knew it, my cake was smashed right in the bunny nose BEFORE I got a picture of it! There were 3 pair of eyes looking at me for my reaction and mine began to fill with tears of defeat and disappointment. I can imagine how my boys felt at my distress, due to their mischief. Today, I can see that if I had been living with passion, rather than perfectionism, I could have laughed and preceded on to enjoy the rest of the holiday fun. I'm not saying a scolding of some sort wasn't in order but perspective could have put me in a more gracious state of mind. I could only think about how my special plans had been thwarted! Passion, Girls, NOT perfection!
I can offer one more very simple example from just two nights ago, with a better outcome: CONFESSION! I ate a couple of bites (nice size bites) of chocolate cake AND tiramisu AND cheesecake AND some other 4-layer cake I can't even remember the name of at a lovely dinner hosted by some of our dear friends AND I enjoyed every single bite! :-0 What a glorious night - a "cheat" night - woo-hoo! Make no mistake, after such a night, I am right back on my clean eating plan. I have my egg whites, salad, grilled chicken breast, apple and protein shake mix all prepared for today's fare but...it sure was fun! I didn't let one evening of less than a perfect diet de-rail me with disappointment! It's called having a passionate NOT perfectionist approach to being healthy and fit that allows for a deviation from the norm, on occasion (just not too many occasions!) so as to be truly Fit4Life, not just living Life 2 B Fit!
Have a great week and whatever your hand finds to do...I encourage you, choose to do it with passion that energizes rather than suffering the drain of perfectionism!
Still Climbing,
Cher
Monday
Life Is Not About Food! No, REALLY It's Not!
GIRLFRIENDS! I have a question?! Why, oh why, do we make everything about FOOD in our culture?! Lean in, girls, for an important newsflash! If we want to live a fit and fabulous life (especially for those over 40 - nobody I know...but just FYI! :-) we have to learn to think differently - to get our minds right!
Pay attention to your own or most anyone else's conversation for a short time and see how much time is given to FOOD as the subject of discussion! Oh! The time spent on, around, about and eating FOOD, FOOD and more FOOD! :-0 Don't get me wrong - I LOVE food, just like the next girl, but it gets too much face time if you ask me and I'm glad you did! ;-)
Let me be clear. Unless you are a chef, your life should not revolve around food! Make your life about living passionately, within your purpose, as it relates to the unique way God has wired you and, in that place, be busy building and maintaining meaningful relationships! THAT is life!
Food is a great tool to fuel our bodies in the best possible way so as to condition us to be our personal best! Instead of having an unhealthy focus or even obsession with food and spending most of our waking hours thinking about and planning and preparing our next exchange with it, let's change our thinking about the purpose it has in our lives!
It's great to get excited about a special event such as a birthday party, bridal shower, an upcoming holiday cook-out,etc. but let's reel in the intense focus on what we will EAT and get excited about what we will D
I have food to eat that you don't know about. My food is to do the will of him that sent me. Jesus
Pay attention to your own or most anyone else's conversation for a short time and see how much time is given to FOOD as the subject of discussion! Oh! The time spent on, around, about and eating FOOD, FOOD and more FOOD! :-0 Don't get me wrong - I LOVE food, just like the next girl, but it gets too much face time if you ask me and I'm glad you did! ;-)
Let me be clear. Unless you are a chef, your life should not revolve around food! Make your life about living passionately, within your purpose, as it relates to the unique way God has wired you and, in that place, be busy building and maintaining meaningful relationships! THAT is life!
Food is a great tool to fuel our bodies in the best possible way so as to condition us to be our personal best! Instead of having an unhealthy focus or even obsession with food and spending most of our waking hours thinking about and planning and preparing our next exchange with it, let's change our thinking about the purpose it has in our lives!
It's great to get excited about a special event such as a birthday party, bridal shower, an upcoming holiday cook-out,etc. but let's reel in the intense focus on what we will EAT and get excited about what we will D
I have food to eat that you don't know about. My food is to do the will of him that sent me. Jesus
Be Fit 2 Fight - "Eat" Right!
Being fit in all 4 areas is important for any number of reasons. The one I want to address today is being fit 2 fight! Yep! You heard me right! This life is a beautiful ride with some painful bumps in the road, at times, and when we get "out of shape" in any of the 4 areas of our being, we are vulnerable to getting sucker punched!
Any of you who have read my blogs, or if we have chatted more than once or twice, know that I believe we must remain "fit" and growing in all 4 areas of life: spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical in order to live a passionate life of excellence!
If we are "out of shape," spiritually, when a tough opponent comes along in the form of temptation or discouragement, we will forget to lean into prayer and be unable to recall verses and readings that, had we been taking them in and meditating on them during the week, we might not find ourselves tapping out in those tough rounds where important moral and ethical decisions are made!
If we are "out of shape," intellectually, and have been feeding out of the trash bin with too many mind numbing, valueless TV shows and books, negative conversations or gossip or if we have just been "starving" ourselves instead of taking in enlightening and brain stimulating growth opportunities and conversations, we will find ourselves "dumbed down" in dealing with the complexities that may come our way or blind-sided to career and personal growth opportunites, since we have made ourselves dull of hearing! Remember to keep your diet clean for optimal fight ready health!
If we are "out of shape," emotionally, when something happens that hurts our feelings or jars our healthy self perception, instead of being emotionally healthy enough to accept what is helpful in our pursuit of growth, and discarding the rest, we will take it as a personal assault and become bogged down in being people pleasers or take on the feeling of worthlessness from some careless words or someone else's bad day! We must feed ourselves with positive thoughts, surround ourselves with positive people and build ourselves up by taking care with what we allow into our minds through our ears and eyes! This will prepare us for a face off with those moments when our emotions are under attack!
Lastly, if we are "out of shape," physically, not getting enough rest, carrying extra weight, eating junk food and not taking time to dress ourselves in an attractive way that makes us feel confident and prepared for each day, we will find ourselves at a disadvantage in the ring when it comes to being able to fight lethargy, depression, a nagging lack of self-confidence and the constant need for the approval of others. We must strive to be in fighting condition!
If you have been on the sidelines, it's not too late! It takes a commitment and self discipline to get into fighting condition and we need each other for support and encouragement but it CAN be done without a doubt! Come with me on this journey of a life lived with passion and in the pursuit of excellence!
I Tim. 6:12 "Fight the good fight of faith."
Still Climbing With You!
Cher
Any of you who have read my blogs, or if we have chatted more than once or twice, know that I believe we must remain "fit" and growing in all 4 areas of life: spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical in order to live a passionate life of excellence!
If we are "out of shape," spiritually, when a tough opponent comes along in the form of temptation or discouragement, we will forget to lean into prayer and be unable to recall verses and readings that, had we been taking them in and meditating on them during the week, we might not find ourselves tapping out in those tough rounds where important moral and ethical decisions are made!
If we are "out of shape," intellectually, and have been feeding out of the trash bin with too many mind numbing, valueless TV shows and books, negative conversations or gossip or if we have just been "starving" ourselves instead of taking in enlightening and brain stimulating growth opportunities and conversations, we will find ourselves "dumbed down" in dealing with the complexities that may come our way or blind-sided to career and personal growth opportunites, since we have made ourselves dull of hearing! Remember to keep your diet clean for optimal fight ready health!
If we are "out of shape," emotionally, when something happens that hurts our feelings or jars our healthy self perception, instead of being emotionally healthy enough to accept what is helpful in our pursuit of growth, and discarding the rest, we will take it as a personal assault and become bogged down in being people pleasers or take on the feeling of worthlessness from some careless words or someone else's bad day! We must feed ourselves with positive thoughts, surround ourselves with positive people and build ourselves up by taking care with what we allow into our minds through our ears and eyes! This will prepare us for a face off with those moments when our emotions are under attack!
Lastly, if we are "out of shape," physically, not getting enough rest, carrying extra weight, eating junk food and not taking time to dress ourselves in an attractive way that makes us feel confident and prepared for each day, we will find ourselves at a disadvantage in the ring when it comes to being able to fight lethargy, depression, a nagging lack of self-confidence and the constant need for the approval of others. We must strive to be in fighting condition!
If you have been on the sidelines, it's not too late! It takes a commitment and self discipline to get into fighting condition and we need each other for support and encouragement but it CAN be done without a doubt! Come with me on this journey of a life lived with passion and in the pursuit of excellence!
I Tim. 6:12 "Fight the good fight of faith."
Still Climbing With You!
Cher
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