The Fit Life: What Is Your Story?

If you were given one minute to tell your story – what would you say?

Which moments, turning points, people, feelings, experiences, or fragrances would you evoke?

Stories are about overcoming adversities. They define us. However, we can also define our stories, which is a tremendously empowering concept. It gives us substantial power over our destiny, and, oftentimes, lets us overwrite the old and useless stories.

So, why not direct our lives in a way so we can share that life story of ours with passion and certitude that it is the story we want to be living?

Life is full of destabilizing meanders, and everyone needs a good story. It would be wonderful if the story was a happy one, but life is full of bumps… Therefore, our stories might not be entirely happy, but their resemblance to continuity instills trust, calm, and belief in the way we live.

If we don’t have yet an exciting story which we would be proudly sharing twenty years from now, we can always create one. That requires us to be courageous to face multiple change-related decisions, and be the protagonist of that change.

Even successful and coherent transitions are challenging and unsettling and, as such, often no fun. Undertaking a transition often requires hard work, commitment, and doing things we are not used to.

Take an example of me when I was at my heaviest weight. I didn’t like my story back then, I didn’t feel self-confident, I was being bullied and wore an old pair of glasses on occasion. I did not have much to lose, as I was not happy. Little did I know, but that situation equipped with both intrinsic and extrinsic motives to change it. Intuitively, I embarked on the challenge of reclaiming my body. I had no idea if I would even lose a pound before turning 80, but I challenged myself to work hard so that story could be mine.

Being in the deep trenches of that transition was no fun. I hated exercise and I had no idea what to eat to become healthier. Back in Poland in the 1980s, losing weight equaled to picking on a few salad leaves a day. There was no fun way to do it.

In 1988, I left for Italy, I released the past and embraced the future, and I managed to approach building my new story in a new way. The old ways were painfully not enough and were not working for me. My story didn’t make much sense to me anymore. It was the point of no return and I needed to reinvent myself and write my new story. In Italy, there was more information, more healthy foods, and for the first time, I walked into a commercial gym which even I could use!

Some stories are a result of avoidance, and some are the result of a desire (like in the case when we parent either similarly to what we learned from our parents, or we avoid their example like hell).

Stories evolve from one event point to another (bad or good) or develop more smoothly. I guess, whatever path you choose to work your unique story and transition, you want to ask yourself sometimes, “Am I happy? Are those around me happy?”. And you must trust yourself that you are creating a good, “lived happily ever after” kind of a story!

Magdalena is the owner of the Be Fit Fit Personal Training Studio (www.befitfit.biz) and the Top 3% Chairman’s Board Realtor® at the Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International in Sedona. Visit her “Be Fit Fit” blog at www.verdenews.com.