A personal journey to greater health and happiness in three simple steps
Better health and greater happiness—these two things are generally at the root of our new years’ resolutions. But after January, we usually give up on those new goals and latch back on to the mediocrity we’re comfortable with. You don’t really have to try hard at anything to be average. I know because that’s how I was.
I was relatively healthy and more or less happy. I wasn’t overweight, but I wasn’t thin and ripped. I didn’t love my job, but I didn’t hate it. I did my workouts each morning, checked the box, and got on with my day. I never stuck with anything, I just kept trying new things believing what they promised—ripped in 30! Yeah, that never happened.
Then it was off to work at a job I was average at. I knew what I was doing, but there was no passion. It was comfortable. Came home and made what I considered a healthy, modest dinner, and that was life.
It’s not that it was a bad life. I thought I had a great life, but I wasn’t pushing harder at anything. I didn’t get excited about much, and if I’m honest, I was just keeping the status quo. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll never see a change. I guess that’s why I never lost those 10 pounds. And I suppose that’s why I never fell in love with my work or became anything more than average at it.
Then there are those people, we all know them, they seem to have it all. They’re lean and ripped, they love their careers, they’re passionate about life. I was content, but somehow being average was no longer enough. I envied those people, but I didn’t know how, or what to do, to change to become like them. I was 30 before I started to leave mediocrity behind and over the past 2-3 years I’ve achieved what used to seem impossible, or only for the lucky few. Here’s my journey.
Change #1 – Find a fitness focus to be passionate about.
My first major life change came about in early 2014 when I met someone with a focused approach to fitness. Rob talked about one thing—rock climbing. He loved it! He was a fanatic and always pushing harder to be better at it—and it showed! He was incredibly strong and lean, and he devoted so much of his free time to rock climbing, not because he wanted to look better, but because he was passionate about “sending” harder routes.
I had dabbled in so many things, yet never really gotten excited about any one activity enough to stick with it, push harder or spend more than an hour a day doing it. My fitness routines, like many things in my life at the time, were a means to an end. I wanted to lose weight and look better, not necessarily get better at any given activity. Rob was so clearly passionate and genuinely excited about rock climbing that I knew I had to give it a try. I wanted passion like that too!
It was an easy activity to take up because we started dating and I suddenly found myself with a psyched (yep, no other word could describe him) personal coach. It was hard, really hard, but I liked it and my aching, sore muscles let me know I was getting something out of it too. We were spending so much time together and rock climbing was practically all he did, so I started climbing more too, letting other activities slowly drop from my rotating workouts.
Gym sessions weren’t always fun, but then we’d go outside and climb real rocks and suddenly all the hard hours of training was worth it. I too wanted to get stronger and climb harder, and suddenly training had a real purpose that wasn’t just losing weight. But the great thing was, I was losing weight, plus I was gaining muscle and my body was starting to change.
Change #2 – Find what makes you happy and pursue it.
Workout DVDs and early morning runs had been my means to an end in the world of fitness, and likewise my career was simply a means to an end. For the past 10 years, I’d been working a desk job in a career field I was far from passionate about. It was hard to go “above and beyond” when I had no drive to be better at what I did.
I was content to put in my eight hours, collect my paycheck and get on to the things I really wanted to do. The money was decent, but was it really worth it? I started to reevaluate my priorities. I didn’t exactly know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted a more active, non-corporate, less stressful job.
If 2014 was the year to find my fitness passion, 2015 became the year to find my career passion. Around August of 2015 I finally left the comfort of my steady income, and went in pursuit of something that excited me. I ended up not just finding a new job, I found three!
The first was a part-time gig that allowed me to be on my feet, walking, lifting, carrying, and moving things all day. On top of that, it was in a fun environment and I get to learn more about something I love—alcohol.
Second, I started writing. I’ve always loved to write but it had been years since I’d been paid to do it. (Thanks Gary Poole for giving me a chance, and thanks to all you Pulse readers who keep us writing!)
And my third job is maybe the most exciting. My husband (yeah, I married that crazy rock climber guy) started his own business in mid-2016 and I’ve been able to use my skills from my time in the corporate world to help him with the accounting and business side of owning a small business.
Let me tell you, when you’re doing it for yourself, that same type of work actually becomes really exciting and rewarding. So yeah, a career change is a scary change to make, but I can honestly say that even though I make less money, I find more happiness in work now than I ever have before.
My three jobs allow me to focus on three of the most important and fun things to me—being active and fit, writing and exploring new topics and ideas, and entering a joint venture with my husband and best friend. This is career happiness!
Change #3 – Find out more about food.
The last thing I had yet to become more passionate about was food. I had always considered myself a healthy eater, but I wouldn’t say I was passionate about food. I didn’t know where it came from, what the difference was between organic and non-organic, or the definition of GMO. If it was marketed as healthy, I pretty much believed the packaging and thought I was doing pretty good, making smart food choices.
But then I started learning, and caring, about food. I watched food documentaries and learned how and from where food is sourced; I read articles about “real food”; and I talked to people who knew more about it and offered new perspectives. I started changing the products I bought, eliminating processed and pre-packaged foods when possible. Trying instead to buy foods that didn’t have an ingredient list because the item itself was the ingredient (think eggs, broccoli, quinoa, chickpeas, bananas and so on).
It was astounding to notice how many preservatives, additives and generally unhealthy ingredients were in foods I had previously thought of as “healthy”. No wonder my body could never lose weight – I was feeding it things it was never designed to process. I started cooking from scratch as much as possible, using real foods as ingredients. I bought free-range eggs and hormone-free chicken even though it cost more.
My body was starting to thank me in the form of weight loss and I started caring more about where my food came from and what was in it than I did about saving a few dollars at the grocery store. I’d always wanted to eat healthy, but now I had a new understanding of what that meant. I was passionate about more than losing weight now, I was passionate about eating real food.
Slowly, one change at a time, my whole life was being transformed and with it my health, happiness and the image I saw in the mirror. For so long I’d been average at a lot of things, but never mastered anything. I was always trying new workouts or activities but never pushing my limits at anything enough to progress to the point of seeing results.
My life had always been about getting in that one workout per day so I could check that box off my to-do list—mediocrity at its finest. Throw in an un-fulfilling job doing something counterproductive to that small amount of daily fitness and it’s no wonder I never moved beyond the plateau.
If you’re reading this and nodding your head, you might be stuck in the same rut I was. If I could offer you any advice for the year ahead, it’s to find an activity you love and pursue it—maybe it’s rock climbing, or maybe for you it’s paddling, biking, running, yoga, CrossFit, triathlons or any number of other activities. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as you’re passionate about it.
Figure out what makes you happy and pursue. Try not to worry so much about the money, you may find you need less things (and thus less money) to make you happy. Finally, spend some time educating yourself about food, real food, instead of trying the latest and greatest fad diet to lose weight.
In the past three years I lost over 15 pounds, dropped at least two dress sizes, and cut my body fat percentage in half. I smile all the time because I love what I do, and I’m a more passionate, happier and healthier person. Make 2017 the year you resolve to do the same!