By Coach Jessica
I’ve learned many important lessons throughout my own personal fitness journey but the one thing that I learned in the very beginning is that the fate of my own journey heavily relies on the people I choose to include in on my journey.
When I made the decision to get off my ass and take better care of my health, I knew a few simple truths:
Lettuce=good
Workout=good
Pizza & beer=bad
I also knew that as much as I felt the urge inside me to get up and move, it would have been way easier to do just that if I had a friend who wanted to come along with me. At the time, none of my friends or family were really interested in fitness so I needed to find a solution.
So, I joined RoxFire Fitness that specializes in group fitness classes with a focus on proper movement and performance. This appealed to me because I knew that even if I felt like quitting, I would never be able to. Why? There was no way in hell I’d get away with crawling up into the fetal position in the middle of the workout and cry like a small child with all the other people in that room with me! And believe me, there were times when I wanted to.
I took the class, wanted to die from start to finish, couldn’t sit down to pee the next day from soreness…and scheduled another class two days later. Why the hell would I do that? Because I finished it and I was so damn proud of myself. I tasted success and immediately craved more. The people and the coach in that class at RoxFire gave me what I was looking for all along. They were friendly, welcoming & supportive. I was held accountable and I didn’t even know it!
The power of influence can be seen everywhere. In most cases it is simply a subconscious reaction to another action. You ever notice how if you’re talking to somebody and he brings up a hand to scratch his nose yours all of a sudden needs a good scratch, too? If I were standing in front of you right now and let out a yawn, you’d yawn right back. Monkey see, monkey do, right?
Now put a common purpose behind that reaction and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success! A morning glory vine will wrap itself up along a post perfectly as to soak up all of the sunshine it needs to bloom into those beautiful blue flowers. Not long after will newly sprouted baby vines follow.
Still not resonating?
Alright, let’s try this: Think of yourself as a fish. We’ll call your fitness goal ‘fish food.’ Then there’s the shark which represents the temptation to quit from pursuing that goal. Now, fish travel in schools of hundreds to thousands with two main purposes: eat and survive. It becomes easier for you to find food (crush a goal) when you are traveling with thousands of little fishy friends because all of those eyes are on the lookout at once. It also becomes harder for the shark (temptation) to attack and kill when he’s up against an entire army of fish. This same theory applies to us all in our own goals. Whatever the goal is; it could be to become leaner, faster, or stronger there is an absolute strength in numbers whether we realize it or not.
Yes, life is just like Finding Nemo.
I’ve come a long way from that first RoxFire workout I took two years ago. I am now a Coach and wouldn’t change anything.
Obviously, becoming a fitness coach is not what most people dream when they start their fit journey, but my point is that whatever your goal: you won’t know where you’ll end up until you try and it may actually turn out like you never expected.
All of the little mini-goals I set for myself along the way like “get up off the couch”, “sign up for another class”, “finish the damn class”, and “don’t die” have accumulated into something bigger than I than I ever thought possible. Not only have all of those like-minded individuals that I’ve sweat my ass off next to made it easier for me to crush my goals one at a time, but a lot of them have become my closest friends to date. These people have made an incredibly positive impact on my life. The real secret to success and happiness is surrounding yourself with people who encourage you to become better.
And it all started with a simple step: taking a free class at RoxFire. You won’t regret it.