I Think I Can: Are YOU Ready to Persevere?

Rochelle Griffin

This is an article that I wrote almost 1-year ago. Thing is…just yesterday we, once again, dropped our son off at the same camp as my husband and I prepare to make ourselves westward again. I felt very ambivalent about taking him and this trip…until I saw this article. It literally brought tears to my eyes. There are so many people who have tried and given up already this year. Are you one of them? PLEASE read on and learn from a 10-year old boy as I did.

Perseverance. It’s a long word that means different things to many people, but it’s present in our lives daily. I had the opportunity these past 2 weeks to really consider what it means to me. Have you truly thought about what it means to you?

I want to share with you how I saw it manifest in my 10-year old this past week. My husband, Keith and I have been traveling the past 14 days. While we’ve been gone, our son has been at sleep-away camp. It’s the longest we’ve ever been apart from him. In the midst of our travels, we had a 2-day break at my mom’s house. I was excited for the brief chance to relax between business trips.

On our first afternoon there, while we were still jet-lagged from a cross-country flight, I received a call that a mom never wants to receive from a camp: “Mrs. Griffin, this is Todd, the camp director. Jacob is ok, but there was an accident. We need to take him to the ER and have his arm x-rayed. It may be broken.” Boom. Jet-lag vanished. We were so thankful to be in town at that particular moment. One day earlier and we would have still been in California. We met them at the ER and saw our poor boy with his arm in a splint. It’s not how I imagined our reunion would be.  While we waited for the x-ray, I talked with Jacob quietly in the room. He told me how homesick he was and how good it was to see me. I climbed right onto the stretcher with him and cuddled.

Long-story short, his arm thankfully was NOT broken. Although the camp staff came with Jacob, he wanted to return home with us. Who can blame him? When I don’t feel good, I still want MY mom. We took him back to my mom’s house but explained to him that we still had to go away for another few days. We encouraged him to return to camp and finish out the week. He didn’t want to. He was shaken. He was homesick. He didn’t want to be in the wilderness anymore. We were leaving the decision to him.

The next morning, we drove out to the camp to pick up his belongings. Todd met us out front. The next thing I know, Jacob is smiling BIG at Todd and saying that he wants to stay for the rest of the week. I was such a proud mama. My boy learned a valuable lesson in perseverance. Sometimes you just have to push through when you don’t want to, but when you do it, it can turn out to be something crazy awesome.

Another example of perseverance is my marriage. While Keith and I were gone this weekend, we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary at a beautiful 200-year old bed & breakfast in Indiana. Now, if I said to you that the past 21 years were a piece of cake, I’d totally be lying to you. Marriage is hard. It takes compromise…and I sometimes stink at that. We’ve been through just about everything a married couple can go through, but we’ve stuck it out. We’ve persevered. We did so because we knew the benefits completely outweighed any of the negatives.

These two occasions made me really ponder the relationship between perseverance & health and fitness. DOES perseverance relate to our lifestyle? It’s kind of a rhetorical question because, of course, it completely relates to our health, fitness, nutrition, and well-being. The question is are you, am I, are WE willing to push through the hard times because we know the benefits outweigh that piece of cake we want to eat or the sore muscles that we have or the lack of time that we feel? It’s not always going to be easy. It’s not always going to feel good. Sometimes it will feel darn right burdensome and uncomfortable. Anything positive, however, is worth pressing forward for, even when we don’t feel like it.

So the next time that you don’t feel like pressing play, working out, eating well, or taking care of yourself, I want you to think of the little boy who provided an awesome example of perseverance. If he was able to step outside of his comfort zone and do what was right, you can also. I believe in you!

I’d LOVE to hear about times that you’ve pressed through when you didn’t feel like it. Now the time for you to brag on yourself…and yes, it’s ok! Let’s celebrate the victories in the comments!

A Toast to Your Health,

Rochelle Griffin is Registered Nurse with over 20 years experience who has transitioned her love for fitness, health, & freedom into a 6-figure company that now helps others live the life of their dreams.

 

 

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