Bumps On The Road

We all know that the road to any goal is not paved in stone. The road is usually an old woods road which is twisty & turny, littered with potholes, and can have fallen down trees. All these obstacles can be very challenging.

I believe that the challenges we face in life are what nake us stronger and help us to prepare for the next challenge that we are going to face. You know that there will always be come sort of obstacle/challenge in your future. Wouldn't life be boring if it was easy?

Even though I am seeing wonderful results on my journey, I am not perfect and neither is the road I am travelling on. I hit bumps, potholes, and fallen down trees quite often. I'll tell you about one bump that I hit a few weeks ago.

I had a great workout with my trainer, Todd. The kind of workout where you know you are going to be sore the next day. I love those kinds of workouts. We worked my legs doing a bunch of jumps (jumping jacks, bunny hops, twists, and ski-jacks) sumo squats, and lunges. Well, the next day, I was sore all right! Not only were the muscles that I had worked sore, but my knees were sore and swollen. I took some Advil and went to work. The next day, I went back to work for another 12 hour shift. During my shift, I pulled my achilles tendon. It hurt like H, E, double hockey sticks! I took some more Advil. My knees seemed to hurt more and more every day and they became more and more swollen every day. I worked my last night shift and was going to be off for 5 days.

I got home and went to sleep. I had 2 hours of sleep before I had to get ready to go to the gym and see Todd again. Just so you know...it was not very smart of me to plan a workout on 2 hours of sleep. I woke up from my sleep and was getting ready to go to the gym. I became very upset and I was really emotional. I was having a lot of negative thoughts and feelings. I was thinking "why bother going to the gym when my knees are sore and my achilles tendon was sore". I convinced myself that I was not going to get a good workout because I would not be able to work hard due to the pain I was in, so why bother go. I was so frustrated with the knee pain that I was crying. I was trying to get into shape so that I could do more and work harder, not to do less and to have to deal with knee pain. I considered calling Todd and cancelling our session. I picked up the phone, and as I began dialing I knew I was making the wrong decision. I put the phone down and decided to look at my options. The two options I could think of were to go to the gym and get the best workout that I could get. Or to stay home and feel sorry for myself. I knew that if I chose the second option, it would involve going to the store and getting some chips, pop, and possibly chocolate. I began to think of the patients that I had taken care of the night before. I can't tell you what they were in with, but two of them were dealing with physical pain that was as big as a mountain compared to my little bump. Then I thought to myself "short term pain, for long term gain". I decided to take a step forward, in my journey, instead of taking two steps back.

So, I got in the car and drove to the gym. I was still feeling a bit negative. Ashley (I think that is her name) was at the front desk and had a beautiful smile on her face and said "Dawn, have a great workout" and I thought to myself "I control whether I have a good workout or a bad workout, and I choose to have a good workout". Todd was great, he modified the workout to accomodate my painful knees and achilles tendon.

I got home from the gym and was very proud of myself. I knew that I had accomplished more than just a great workout that day.

Rememer to keep taking forward steps, even if they are baby steps. You have the power to turn negatives into positives. Everything looks better when you put a positive spin on it. Attitude is everything.

Here are some wise words for you:

"I do believe that when we face challenges in life that are far beyond our power, it's an opportunity to build on our faith, inner strength, and courage. I've learned that how we face challenges plays a big role in the outcome of them."

-Sasha Azevedo