How a Non-Crunchy, “Fitness Badass” Embraced Her Crunchy Side and Moved a Mountain
Intrigued by that subject line?
Well, today I want to tell you about how my business, and more importantly, my life changed two years ago, almost to the day.
Performance Fitness has been in our current home for a little over a year and a half. Before moving to Manoa Rd., I rented space for our classes at a couple locations over a six year period. Sometime near the end of year one of renting these spaces I knew I wanted my own location for the business, but that goal took me five years to achieve. It was definitely a process.
During that five year period I had to overcome several obstacles before I felt confident inking my name to a lease. They included practical ones, like finding a great location of an ideal size that fit into my needed budget. And they involved mental ones, like figuring out what I wanted as a small business owner and how I could achieve that.
But the whole process started with me overcoming my biggest obstacle – fear. And overcoming that obstacle started with a processed I poo-pooed for years – Vision Boarding.
I’m an overthinker – I’m constantly in my head weighing different situations and outcomes. I’ve been called wise and philosophical, but I’m also EXTREMELY practical and non-crunchy. But for whatever reason, in December of 2015 I signed up for a vision board workshop led by artist and therapist, Angela Marchesani.
To give you a little more background, about five years before the workshop a wellness consultant suggested I do a vision board around a particular goal I was working on. I laughed at her. In my mind, vision boards were artsy and craftsy (I am neither) and crunchy (admittedly I can be a bit of this). “So you glue stuff to a board, like some fourth grade camp collage project, and then all that stuff magically comes true? Riiight.”
Despite this view, I signed up for the January 2015 workshop with Angela. I approached the task without judgment or censorship. And guess what? I loved it! I enjoyed flipping through magazines and finding pictures and words that represented what I wanted to achieve in my personal and professional life. I took pleasure in mapping out the board. In fact, I was the last person to leave the workshop that day. I put the board up at my desk in my home office where I could see it all the time. My eyes always focused on the cutout that said, “Personal Training Studio.”
There was no magic in the vision board, but it did bring about focus, which helped me work on my “big rocks” (aka goals) and get out of my comfort zone.
Fast forward two years and many of the things I envisioned have come to fruition (although I’m still waiting on my vacations to the Dominican Republic and Turks and Caicos).
Obviously, I believe doing a vision board is a useful tool and a powerful exercise. The New Year is a great time to re-evaluate your goals and intentions. I’m a firm believer in goal setting, but sometimes, generating another “to-do list” or set of pressure-filled expectations might not help. And you might be feeling that way right now.
Instead of adding pressure to your already pressure-filled life or setting yourself up for disappointment, join Angela Marchesani at Performance Fitness on Sunday, January 29th from noon until 3:00 for a Vision Board workshop.
Angela will take you through several exercises to help you clarify your goals for your career, relationships, finances, health, and any area of your life you’d like to focus on. Using art supplies and cuttings of words and images from magazines, create a beautiful collage on a canvas that will serve as a visual guidepost for the rest of the year and beyond.
Like me, and don’t have an artsy craftsy bone in your body? Don’t worry. As you can see from my story, the process alone can set the wheels of change in motion, and no one has to ever see your finished product. Try something new. You may surprise yourself!
The fee for the workshop is only $25 to cover the cost of materials. Non-alcoholic beverages and snacks will also be provided.
Registration is limited to 10 people. Click here to get your spot.