Starting Point

At my workplace, there is an annual effort to get people interested in healthy living.  Each year, corporate HR rolls out a new contest, a new tracker, a new program and those interested sign up and the competition begins.  Some years, I've been into it.  Most years, I lose interest.  Personally, competition with others generally leads to my failure.

This year, the program is pretty awesome.  The big benefit is that participation is individually motivated and participation means you get a healthy deduction on next year's insurance cost.

To kick off this initiative, meetings were held with small groups.  In each group, a speaker (one of our co-workers) spoke about their own healthy living choices.  In my group, a man I work with talked about running.  And he really talked about running like a lot of people who have been running for a long time talk about running.  He listed off the number of times he's done this half marathon, how many marathons he has completed, etc.  He told us that anyone can run - even if you "just" do a 5K.  I was feeling pretty left out and kind of defeated, honestly.

Then another runner in the room spoke up.  And he has done more half and full marathons than the first guy.  And he said words that spoke to me.  He said that he isn't inspired by those fast runners ahead of him.  He isn't motivated to keep running because he wants to be like those fast people who win events.  He's inspired by the people who come in dead last.  He's inspired by the people who take an hour to do a 5K, 4 hours to do a half marathon, 8 hours to complete the marathon.  Because those people are the ones who are really dedicated to that race, to that event.  Those people are the ones who are facing their struggles head on.

Damn skippy.

This quote from Zig Ziglar has been floating around for a while now but has been seared into my brain in the past few weeks as I come to terms with my current sense of struggle.

I don't have to be great to start.

I stayed away from the gym for months because I didn't want to be the one huffing and puffing, I didn't want to be too fat for the class, I didn't want to feel like I didn't fit in because I wasn't already fit.  This first part of the quote has become my mantra when I walk into the gym, into the group exercise class, into public in my workout clothes.

I have to start to be great.

But if I don't walk into that gym and jump into that class and start working off these pounds, I won't ever reach my goals.  I won't ever lose this weight.  I won't ever feel energetic, happy, and strong.

I've started.  I confronted my struggle and made a plan to do something about it.  It's a small celebration but I can honestly say that I've been eating right for 2 days and I've been active 3 days in a row.  My next baby step is to contact a dietician to help me battle my emotional eating.  Picking up that phone is hard for me.  But it's what I have to do to get back on the path to healthy living.

What is your starting point?  What do you need to do first to give yourself momentum?  Do you need to make an appointment with a personal trainer?  Do you need to throw away all thejunk food in your home?  Do you need to make a weekly menu based on healthy options?  Do you need to put classes from the local gym on your personal calendar?

What is your starting point, your first step?  What are you going to do to start - so that you can be great?