Shaping Your Future

By Luci Fardo

I have had a couple of weeks which I was under the weather with RSV. I continued to work and only missed one day which I didn't work out. I continued to go to work and show up. It may not have been my best work, but it was the best that I was able to do. It has given me a lot to think about though. It gave me more of an appreciation of the times that I am well. I am much more conscious of trying to prevent other illnesses. This was air born and I don't think I brought it on myself. I don't want to catch other illness that can be prevented though. We so often take our health for granted. The discipline took over in a lot of areas. I played my guitar and I proofread my book I'm writing. 

  I didn't contribute to my blog very much though and I am truly sorry about that. I just really was going through the motions for the most part. I try to create meaningful content and I just couldn't come up with anything to be honest. I have been thinking a lot about this article though. I thought about some things that I listened to and read that reshaped my thinking and that helped shape the person I have chosen to be.

  Jordan Peterson has a blog and a lot of books. I admire him so much. One day I am determined that I will talk to him. This was when my husband had passed away and I was mostly just laying around. He said," If you can't do anything else just make your bed every morning." I thought well that is one thing that I could change. Believe it or not that helped change my life. I still to this day make my bed as soon as I get up. I also clean my office when I am feeling stressed at work. It helps me to get my thoughts organized.

  You can't choose what live you are born into or tragedy that may happen in your life. You can change how you respond to those things. You need to treat yourself as well as you would someone else that you loved. Love yourself enough to care for your health and your body. I have learned to actually care about myself. That was something that was very difficult for me. I had to let go of a lot of insecurities and body-loathing that I had held onto for a long time. I had to get past the fact that I was given away in childhood. I had to realize the marriage and life I had imagined was over. These things are hard and happen to people every day. I learned to not feel sorry for myself. The media and news constantly encourages victimhood. That is something we need to stop doing. We need to start encouraging people to rescue themselves. How we react to what happens to us is important. I had to rescue myself and that was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I became fearless.

  I thought about what kind of life I wanted. I began to picture in my mind what I would make happen in my life. I decided to meet new people and lose some relationships that were not good for me. I moved to a city because I had always wanted to do so. 

  I decided to set personal fitness goals. This led to going to the gym and working out. I work out hour and a half every day with no excuses. I stopped eating crappy food. You know that processed stuff that feels really good going down but makes you feel tired and bad about yourself afterward. I cut out drinking and rarely touch it anymore. When you work out and are training for a marathon and to become a licensed fitness instructor it just doesn't fit in.

  Let us talk about work. I went back to work in technology. This is different for one reason in my first marriage my husband didn't want me to move up very high in the companies I worked for. I don't know why I accepted that, but I did. When I got married the second time I made sure that I let my husband know that I was driven and had big plans to go as high in my company as possible. We decided that wherever my company transfers me it is a go. I know now that we should never be in a relationship that puts limits on our own growth. If my husband were to get a job in another state I could pick up and we could go there. My work has the most amazing ability to work nearly anywhere. The important thing is we both support each other in our careers. For enough money we could be bicoastal and live in two different parts of the country if we had to and travel back and forth. Not likely, but who knows?

  I have a lot of plans for my blogging and motivational business. I do plan on creating a youtube channel and do some personal coaching. I hope my book finally gets released soon. There will be many more to come. I also have ideas for more glutton-free recipes. I am working on some downloadable diets and planners that I will be offering up. If you haven't noticed I don't use a ton of ads and that is because I'm more interested in developing good content than bombarding you with ads that I will see very little revenue from. I do this for you the reader. At some point this year I may do some motivational speaking. That is something I am researching as well. 

  One, think that I would like for you to think about as you go about your busy week. This is something I read about by James Clear and is the quote on the block. I try to apply this to myself every day. I try to be one percent better every day. That is in my personal life, my family life, my friendships, and my work-life. If you improve one percent every day in one year you will be 37% better. Think about that one percent. That isn't much, but I dare you to try this at home, your workout and at your career. Let me know what happens. I've told you what has happened in my life.