Do It Anyway

I was out on one of my thinking walks the other day and was reminiscing about a workshop I had attended the weekend before. At this fitness conference, one of the speakers, Martin Rooney asked us to do what I thought was a ridiculous activity. He wanted this room full of fitness professionals to stand up, jog in place with our hands in the air and sing the theme song from Rocky. I was remembering how annoyed I was when he asked us to do this. After getting up much earlier than I usually do on a Saturday, driving for about an hour in the cold rain, running through the parking lot dodging big puddles of water, and making my way through the crowd to find a seat, I was looking forward to sitting with my coffee in hand and listening to the presentations all day. I had ZERO interest in participating in this foolish activity. I started looking around the room to see if anyone began to follow his instructions and saw a few who were starting to stand up. I thought to myself, “I am getting too old for this crap”. He then said, “C’mon, everybody up”. I succumbed to his request and then adrenaline started flooding my body. Normally I like adrenaline because I am a high energy person but not on this particular morning and certainly not before my caffeine! We all proceeded to sing and jog. He obviously was not happy with our lukewarm performance and said with an even louder commanding voice, “Start again! This time louder!” The room filled with more energy as everyone sang a lot louder and with more passion and enthusiasm. He got that entire room of 200 fitness professionals to jog in place with our arms overhead and sing the theme song from Rocky loudly with energy and excitement - It was electrifying!

As we returned to our seats filled with laughter and lighter hearts, Martin explained his rationale for having us perform this task. He said that there were probably a lot of people in the room who didn’t think they had it in them to do this or simply didn’t want to do it but did it anyway. I didn’t want to stand up and sing - first of all, I hadn't even finished my coffee and second, deep down inside I'm pretty sure that I was afraid of making a fool out of myself. Tony Robbins refers a lot to the term "motion creates emotion". The meaning of this term is not to wait until you are in the mood to do something but to move first and the emotions will follow. Before Martin asked us to jog and sing in place I was annoyed but afterwards, I was filled with the emotion of joy. The motion created the emotion!

The theme song from Rocky naturally made me think of my pet hamster when I was a kid. As a 9-year-old girl that movie had enough of an impact on me that I named my pet after the main character, Rocky Balboa. Rocky was a regular guy with all odds against him who overcame obstacles to become the heavyweight champion of the world. I am sure he didn't feel like waking up in the middle of the night to eat raw eggs and go for a run in the cold, dark air but he did it anyway!

During that same walk, I thought about a letter I had written when I was sixteen years old to my best friend Margie. We spent our summers together in Montauk, Long Island but during the school year, we wrote letters to each other to keep in touch. In one of her letters, she mentioned that she had been trying to lose a few pounds and asked me if I had any diet plans to give her. I guess she thought of me as some sort of weight loss expert. I didn't know I was but I gave her advice happily. Here is the letter:

It hit me that even as a 16-year-old I was teaching, inspiring and setting an example for better health. As my stride got longer and my breathing deeper, I had come to the realization that through helping people live a healthier life, I not only get to live my dreams every day but I am doing what God put me on this earth to do! 

Over the years I have attended numerous workshops where the speakers ranged from being arrogant, boring, funny, interesting, knowledgeable, etc. but I have never been to a workshop where one of the speakers made me realize that my whole life has prepared me for my chosen field. I have never been to a workshop where one of the speakers inspired me to write my first blog. I get to wake up in the morning and inspire people every day! I get to teach them that like Rocky Balboa, with hard work, sheer determination, and just doing it anyway, we can achieve whatever we set our minds to.  

  - Kim Musikant

Active Life Fitness Personal Trainers & Gym
94 North Ave, Garwood, NJ 07027
(908) 389-8009