"Chasing the Dream"

By Luci Fardo

I wanted to touch base with my readers. I haven't contributed as much lately as I usually do. I have had a very busy schedule with my life. I wanted to share with you what I have been up to. I have had a vision for a long time on where I wanted my life to go and what I planned on implementing and putting into place. I have had some minor health issues that have made it difficult to post about them. One being a wrist surgery to repair what was supposed to remove a cyst from my wrist. They told me before the surgery that only two percent of those with this surgery have it be something else. I one the lottery on that and am waiting to find out what type of cyst or growth they removed. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I have continued going to the gym and working but can't lift weights or do a plank yet though.

One of the things that I had planned on doing was to start being a group instructor, personal trainer and wellness coach. I am completing the classes and taking my recertification in CPR and first aid on March 11, 2024. I will be teaching pilates, yoga, spin class, and several others. I will be doing those classes at the Richmond Telford YMCA. I'm am also taking on clients to do personal training and create customized dietary plans for a fee of course. Time is money and I have a limited amount of both. This is something that I have wanted to do since I was 19 years old. I was in a relationship that was unhealthy with a jealous spouse that was controlling in a lot of aspects of my life. I urge anyone that is in an unhealthy relationship to get out of it. From my personal experience it doesn't get easier.

I am now my own person with my own decisions with a supportive partner who supports whatever dream I am chasing. Trust me when I say there are a lot. If you are interested in hiring me as a personal trainer or creating a diet let me know and I will happily give you the assessment to complete and we will go from there. The fee's are affordable and I will work with you on a plan to fit your budget. I am also launching a youtube channel this year and may have some free workout videos if anyone is interested in viewing them.

I was thinking about something today at the gym and wanted to share it with you. Making changes in your life and making your dreams come true or reach a goal it is not as easy as some people make you believe. It is not easy to change your habits and thoughts. There will never be a good time to make changes. The most important thing is to work on yourself. Work on your thoughts and this is where the change begins. Start reading or listening to some sort of positive podcast or book each day. Watch your inter dialogue with yourself. Make sure that you don't allow that voice in your head to change your mind for you. You are the one in control of your life's story. You have to convince yourself every day to make sure that you believe in you. Envision the future you want and picture yourself there.

Be brave because it takes so much courage to start over or begin something new. I have had to face fear every time that I have tried something new. I try to look at it that if I fall then I will fall forward. No matter what happens its a step forward. I will learn from the mistakes and see the opportunity there. Winston Churchill once said, "Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." This doesn't mean that I enjoy failing because it makes me wish I was better. I don't wish the task was easier but that I was better able to manage the task. People are so much more capable than they realize. The only true person holding you back is you.

My mom always told me to give it my all. She was my harshest critic and when I was growing up i was like but I made a good grade. Yes, but you could have done better. She expected excellence from me because she knew that I was capable of so much more. This was my adoptive mother. The truth is that I was abandoned as an infant by my birth mother. I'm not ashamed of it but I feel that in some ways throughout my life it has caused abandonment issues and fears that I have had to work on. I'm sure that isn't very different or more special than anyone else's story. My mother instilled in me to never give less than what you are capable of.

My advice to you is to set high standards in everything that you do. Make sure that you put effort in it. Make sure that the work is a reflection of you. I remember she used to tell me I had grit in my crawl. I didn't understand that until recently. What she meant was that when times were hard for me I kept going. My work ethic is that when I am hospitalized I will call in work. I think the easiest and hardest thing in the world is to show up every day. My best advice in life is to show up. Even if you don't do as well as you would on a day you feel like it. If I waited until I felt like doing something than I would probably still be sitting around playing ESO all night and posting on twitch. I believe in down time don't get me wrong. I just choose to keep that time limited so that what time I do have I appreciate more than I would otherwise.

Whatever you are trying to achieve you can if you want to badly enough. You have to make sure that you are doing the work every day to achieve what your heart's desire is. You can't be lazy. You would be amazed how many opportunities and how much overnight success happens once you start showing up and doing your best in life. 200 years ago we were peasants working in the fields. You have a duty to become better. You must have discipline and do what you are supposed to do to achieve your goals in life. At the end of your life those dreams will come back to haunt you. I have battled cancer before and when I thought about death those were the thoughts that haunted me. I thought about all of the things I had thought about doing and became determined to survive to accomplish those things. I wrote down those goals and set them on the back burner but now am chipping away at them one by one.

Create a goal and then create a plan. Make lists of what you need to do to reach that goal. Check each accomplishment off on that list as you go. It feels so good to check those off. I remember when I first started going to the gym I planned on losing 30 pounds. I achieved that and loved running so much that I went ahead and lost ten more to make it easier on my knees. I remembered my goal of becoming a fitness trainer and started working on that. I created an anti-inflammatory diet combo of my own and successfully have maintained that weight for over three years. Was it easy? No, but nothing worthwhile ever is.

My full-time job was quite a challenge to achieve goals that I have. I haven't reached my end goal but just to become a team lead I had to start over from entry level. The company I work for is huge and the competition is fierce. I had to work so hard to make it to the top on the ranking lists. I applied for my current job four times before getting it. To be honest that was the easy part. I love the challenge of business management. I love the spreadsheets and looking at areas of opportunities and watching my people flourish and move to the top of their ranks. I am still working my way up, but I chip away at it every day. I'm there several hours early and usually the last one to leave. You may be smarter then I am and you may be better educated, but I have a work ethic that is do or die. That is the beast mentality you must have to succeed. Success is not for the weak. You have to take risks and put yourself out there. You must play the stup. Anytime that you learning something new you have to start over again and work your way up in that area. That is how it works.

Overnight success is a complete myth. It doesn't exist. I have been in business and management for thirty years and I continually find things that I don't know. The one thing I have learned is to be yourself. Just because something works for something else does not mean it will work for you. My biggest fail for my work was to do something that worked for someone else and it was horrible. To thine own self be true is something I have told myself my entire life. Don't lose yourself along your path to your dreams. I am still the same person I have always been. Let the light within you shine and always try to be positive even if the world is falling around you. Always celebrate other's success and don't ever try to be jealous of other people's gifts. Each person is special in their own ways. Make sure that you enjoy the climb to the top. When you do achieve what you are after the view is beautiful. Each time I climb to the top of a mountain I am successful in finding another one to climb.

"Success is a journey, not a destination,

A path of hard work and determination."

Luci Fardo

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