Today is the day I ____

We talk a lot about goal planning and and setting milestones for yourself and again I want to stress the importance of planning-- but there also comes a time to shake things up.

I was reminded of a quote (they say the origin is Old Texan) this morning that really encompasses something that I truly believe.

"If all you ever do is all you've ever done,
then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

I can keep putting things off, keep getting distracted, keep making excuses for why I can't seem to get my mile time down, or my booty back in my back of the closet jeans. But I've been doing that. I can keep telling myself that my music is most important to me but then completely ignore opportunities to avoid failure. These things are going to get me the same results, which is still not being at my goal weight and at the cusp of something musically stunning. I figure if I'm doing it, somewhere out there is doing it too.
So, I'm quitting putting things off, quitting distractions, quitting excuses.
I'm sure it will not be easy, because old habits die hard. BUT I'm going to take it one day at a time.
So let me encourage you to pick something that you want to work on and do it today. Get something done, then pick something for tomorrow and get it done. No need for long impossible lists. Just one thing.

Today is the day I ______________.

For me: Today is the day I compete with confidence against other songwriters to win prizes.
(the confidence is the big part, I always go in all sheepish and I really think it has an impact on my performance) So I'm going in big. Performing big tonight and selling CDs at the South Austin Idle Singer/Songwriter Finals.

I would love to hear what you are doing today. Please leave your "Today is the day I ______" comments below!

Reaching Milestones

Sometimes we all get too caught up in the process of attaining goals to realize how far we've come. Sometimes we are looking so hard for the finish line that we miss that we've gotten over the biggest of the hills.
I am sitting at my house, filing my paperwork for my album. I went and opened a business account today and the banker looked at me and said "Aren't you excited?" and I had been running around so much that I didn't know for a moment and then it all came flooding over me. Oh my goodness I am SOOOO excited!!! And now that I am putting the papers into the envelopes I realize where I've gotten.
If you didn't know, I'm a singer/songwriter. That's my passion, music. That's what moves me.

When I was heavier, it got in the way of my dreams. I let it get in the way. I put years of training on hold because I was too afraid to get in front of an audience. I started hiding. I stopped writing songs, I stopped going out. I just stopped.
Losing the weight has opened up my life again. I'm back onstage. I'm writing. I'm going out--granted not so much in the ridiculous heat but-- more than I was.
About a month from now I will be releasing my first EP and I am so very excited to realize this plan and celebrate this return to music!

If you are reading this at the start of your journey, I hope that you see what you have gotten away from and fight like mad to get back to it. If you are already well on your way, don't stop fighting until you're where you want to be. You can do it!

Exciting Times!

The end of a camp session and the weekend preceeding the start of a new one are always exciting times. You've seen how you can impact your fitness level in a small amount of time. Evaluations and measurements have been made and you're either satisfied or already planning to push yourself more come Monday.

I think it's amazing how devoting an hour a day even for as little as three days a week can change my body, slowly alter it. Slimming down, tightening up and showing off toned muscle is such a great reward for time spent sweating and pushing yourself to your limit. Or finding out that your limit has been raised and you can do much more than before, hey now that's rewarding!

So go try on those "skinny jeans" every woman has shoved in the back of her closet. Or that clingy dress or the mini skirt that shows off your legs. We all do that, set a goal for a piece of clothing we own. "I'm going to go to camp until I can wear the blue dress I bought for April's wedding last year but never got to show off." I moved recently, so you know I was trying on a ton of clothes and tossing them into piles. One pile was the giveaway mountain and the other was the save-it-until-you-can-fit-in-it hill. So back to camp I go.

A big congratulations to those who met their goals for camp. And for those of us still working toward our's I offer a heartfelt You Can Do It! I've had some setbacks in the past month and know what it means to feel like I've been treading water instead of moving forward. Come Monday morning I'll be at camp pretending that I'm a newbie and that's why I'm out of breath. :-) It's gonna be a wonderful boot camp!

“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning...”

~Joseph Priestly~