I did not want to write today.
I did not want to write tonight.
I am just having one of "those" days.
Around 11 am, my blood sugar dropped. For those of you who don't know, I have type 1 diabetes. So, a low blood sugar is kind of a big deal.
It's a big deal, but nothing I'm not used to. So, I treated it, and went on about my day.
It dropped again.
And again.
My blood sugar was low/borderline low for a good 5 hours.
You know how you feel when you haven't eaten in hours? Shaky, cranky, tired, annoyed...? Yeah. That's how I felt. For 5 hours. (Not to mention, the perpetual frustration with my eye sends irritability into overdrive.)
Needless to say when I made it home from work, I took a nap.
Instead of getting clothes together for an upcoming trip, instead of blogging, instead of taking a shower, instead of doing anything productive...
I took a nap... for 3 hours.
So I woke up at 8 pm. And do you know why I woke up?
Because my blood sugar was low.
I did not want to eat dinner, but I had to.
I did not want to take a shower, but I had to. (You're welcome, co-workers.)
I did not want to write, but I committed to.
And you know what? I feel better.
We all have those days right? We are just done. Over it. We want to throw in the towel. we want to call it quits before the sun even goes down. We just want to try again tomorrow.
But how does that help you today? Where does that get you?
Answers: It doesn't, and nowhere.
Do not let your day own you. You should own your day! You can't control situations around you, but you can control how you react. You can either give in and give up, or you can throw some punches, and take control.
When you take control, even if things don't go as well as you planned, you still win.
Just by following through, you still win.
Just by putting forth a little extra effort, you still win.
Winning isn't about the end result (no matter what your loud-mouth, oompa loompa shaped track coach told you in high school.) Winning is about doing.
So go.
Do.
Win.
A couple of weeks ago, Jon Acuff posted a blog that said something like this:
24 people. 24 days. Guaranteed risk. Dragons. Wizards. Machetes. This message will self destruct in 24 hours. Sign up now.
Ok. I made some of that up. (interestingly enough, not the machete part.) But the point is the same.
So I signed up.
Here's what is going to happen:
I'm going to be on a "team" with 23 other dream chasers from the Nashville area. I'll have an accountability buddy. Each day we will send each other an idea, words of encouragement, or something else to help them with their dream.
I got to choose my own goal for the 24 days. Mine is to blog EVERY day of those 24 days.
We will get an email from Jon each day with a "new challenge, point of encouragement or other such awesomeness"
I am excited! I don't know where this is going to take me, but I do know I'll at least be closer to my goal. *excited squeal*
One month ago, I attended my first 5 Club meeting with Jon Acuff.
He's motivational, inspirational, REAL, and downright hilarious.
Since that meeting (and since I've read his books) I've decided to stop hiding from my dream and start going for it.
And you know what happened?
Progress happened.
All of the sudden, other bloggers are retweeting me. People are sharing my blog posts. I MORE than doubled my blog views from the first 6 months of the year in only 25 days.
And all it took was a little push from this local author and speaker.
If you are ready to punch fear in the face, and learn how to get on the fast track to awesome, get up super early with me tomorrow!
Register here. It's from 5 am to 7 am. It's free. It's early. It's worth it.
Ok ok ok. If you follow me on twitter, or you're my friend on facebook, you know I am a total fan girl of Jon Acuff's. His books are awesome. His blogs are great. He's a funny dude. He is all about closing the gap from your day job to your dream job. He is all about making your life awesome and not just average.
Well, he has a "5club"...where a bunch of dream chasers get up before morning radio show hosts everywhere, and gather, connect, and learn.
Today was my first 5club meeting, and I was so excited that I didn't even feel tired! (Ok, maybe the gas station coffee helped, too.)
Today's lesson was learning how to fight for your dream. What to do when you get push back. I won't go into detail, because if you really want to know more you should ask me, or go buy all of Jon's books and read his blog. Like now. But here are a few lessons that I personally need to remember:
- Don't win fights that don't matter
- Fight with facts
- Don't fight haters
What I love is how he breaks up how to achieve your dreams into tiny little digestible morsels. You never feel overwhelmed.
Did I mention this guy is hilarious? I literally laughed out loud several times while reading his books.
I found these particular quotes particularly amusing this morning. Was it because I was running on 4 hours of sleep? Well, maaaaaaaybe...but still. These were serious LOL moments!
"We have an agenda. That's pretty fancy. A lot of people don't have those." -at the start of the meeting
"When ending fights I just thought you had to apologize a lot, and I don't know, say 'Jesus' or something."
"We didn't have a 'don't steal from church' envelope. I looked." -talking about a business deal gone terribly wrong
"The book was coming out around 4/20. They thought a green cover would be kind of....earthy. Like Earth Day....and maybe a lot of pot." -talking about small fights when it came to his book
He is really the first motivational-type of speaker who has kept my attention. I didn't read his book and then forget about him. I didn't follow him on twitter and then think "OMG he posts too much stupid crap." I bought more books. I read his tweets. I read every blog post. He is engaging and entertaining.
He also has the same type of humor as Brett. They even say "orange" the same way!
He encouraged us to brag on ourselves. If we chose to, we could tell everyone something awesome that happened. I shared my success with my first conference. I had so many people come up afterwards and say "congrats!" It was great to be encouraged by others, and to encourage others, as well.
Of course there was another huge win. He asked a question, I gave my answer, and after I did, he said, "I love your shirt by the way!"
 |
| All of the happy!! |
I think this is the only time anyone has ever liked anything from JC Penney.
Anyway, it was a great couple of hours. I got to listen to Jon, talk with Jon, and meet some interesting people who are just like me in a totally different way.
If you are interested in the 5club, ask me about it!
As always, thanks for reading! I'm going to go take a nap for lunch! :)
I'm not a numbers person. (Ask Brett. If I need a percentage, I'll just text him. He can do it faster in his head than I can with a calculator.)
I'm a words person. I like to read and write. I think poetry is interesting (usually). I love to see creative ways people put words together.
This morning, I was listening to a traffic report, (I'm also a huge nerd, and will listen to every traffic and weather report I come across on my way to work), and the person giving the report said "I've got your traffic report for Tuesday Morning...."
And I don't know what it was, but those two words together, "Tuesday Morning", just struck me as beautiful.
I know. It's weird.
Does that ever happen to any other of you "word people"? Common ordinary phrases or words that you have heard for years just resonate with you on a random Tuesday morning?
It might have been a combination senses. The smell of coffee, the sunlight through my open sunroof.....sometimes the word "morning" is associated with a new beginning, or a sign of hope, too. Maybe that played a part. (Usually I just associate the word "morning" with the torture of trying to drag myself out of bed.)
Anyway, being a words person, I felt I should write about my experience. :)
I hope you all are having a wonderful Tuesday morning. (Or afternoon...or night...whenever you are reading this...)
Thanks for reading!
Ok, I'm a huge dork! But I'm really excited, because I write monthly articles for a Workers Comp newsletter (i know, thrilling, right?) and my first article landed on my desk today!
I am a proud little assistant editor. And, if I do say so myself, I do a pretty good job at making a dry subject fairly entertaining.
Well, that's all really. Just wanted to share my excitement! Thank you for humoring me :)
