Challenge

Everyday I am reminded of the word "challenge". Sometimes, through my own difficulty or through another person's hardship. I am reminded physically, emotionally, or spiritually. It seems to always reveal itself in one way or another.

Yesterday was very different, because yesterday the word challenge redefined itself before me. I found myself standing over one of my clients. I had been here many times. I'd driven bodies and souls into the ground before. I'd collected rivers of sweat in my time. This time my eyes opened, I witnessed a rebirth. As my client kneeled over, eyes closed, sweat running down her face, and gasping for air as if water filled the room on a sinking ship, she seemed done. Ready to throw in the towel. I thought to myself, 'This was too hard. I should've gone easier on her.' She stood up tall, as if rising from the grave, took a deep breath of air that filled her body, hands placed on her hips, looked me in the eyes and said "Ok, what next?" She must have heard my thoughts. I smiled, adjusted my baseball cap, and we moved forward like an unstoppable two-person army. 

Life offers two roads: the easy and the hard. My client reminded me of what it means to ignore the easy road and to accept the challenge. To fight the fight and move forward. We often look for excuses, look for a way out, a reason to give up, a reason to surrender before we even step into the ring. Stop taking the easy road. Challenge yourself and the reward is something that can never be taken away. Nothing worth achieving is done easily. I was reminded of this yesterday. 

Now, I challenge you. Are you up for it?

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain