What Will You Do With It?

 

By far, the best part of being a coach is the interaction I get to have with people. I love learning about them and seeing them grow. 

If I'm honest about it though, I learn way more from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them.

This weekend, I was given some unbelievable wisdom from a client via an email check-in. I had emailed my clients asking them three questions....

1. What was your biggest fitness accomplishment in 2021?

2. What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?

3. What is the #1 thing you need to improve to make 2022 a huge success?

I love reading people's replies and I was happy to get a lot of great responses. One, though, really stood out and literally stopped me in my tracks.

I have an online client that's been in an extended fight with pancreatic cancer. I haven't seen her of late due to a pretty rigorous treatment schedule so when I saw her reply to my email, I was eager to get an update.

Here's the message.

"I like these check-ins! My biggest fitness win in 2021 was staying fairly healthy, considering the pandemic and my health issues. I had a major setback at the end of the year. My chemotherapy stopped working. I'm now racing to find a clinical trial that will help me continue to fight this terrible disease, and maybe help us get closer to a cure. We are SO CLOSE. 

The biggest lesson I learned in 2021 I think was finally getting closer to living in the moment.    How human is that? 

We can't choose to do what makes all of life better until it's the only thing we can do! I finally have learned to value time. 

So for 2022 the big push is to keep doing what I can to last until there is a cure. I think I'm learning that every effort I make pays for itself in the form of more time, and that's what I'm after. 

There are still so many things I want to do! Happy New Year, Ken!"

 Woah......was all I could say out loud. A rush of thoughts went through my head but the biggest was that I
had to share this.

The two big takeaways in her short reply had me thinking about it all day.

1. At a time of year when everyone is planning their future, what matters most is what we do TODAY. There's nothing wrong with planning but if thinking about the future robs us of the present, we are missing the point.

2. Daily actions count. If you want to continue doing what you love, you cannot stop pursuing it NOW.

It's easy to take for granted that none of us have any guarantees in life except when your faced with something that can cut your time short. 

It doesn't have to be this way. We can learn and apply these to valuable lessons anytime we want. 

Many of us are spending this New Year's thinking about 2022. I hope you'll keep in mind the advice of my client and friend. 

I know that I will. 

Thanks for reading