Life with a Twist by Mare_Petras

"Pain is temporary, pride is forever" - Unknown

What motivates you, realbuzz friends? What drives your passion? Understanding self-motivation is critical when attempting to attain and maintain your personal and professional goals. And it’s important to note that sometimes this internal force is fueled by the not-so-obvious.

In several weeks, I will be presenting the opening keynote to an audience of teachers and parents who are interested in motivating their students/children (and themselves) to adopt healthier lifestyles. As part of my preparation, I was inspired to take a step back and examine my source of motivation and resilience.

Because I chose a career in fitness, people often assume I was a natural born athlete. Because I’m perky (I prefer the word positive), they assume I was a cheerleader. Because I’m fit, they assume I was into competitive sports.

Nothing is further from the truth.  Does this five-year-old look like a future fitness professional?

Given my introduction to physical fitness, it’s a miracle I chose a career path associated with fitness. When I look back to my motivational and resilience foundation, I give my first grade teacher Sr. Carlotta a lot of the credit. Sr. Carlotta was young, nice, and fit (I think). I really couldn’t tell because she wore one of those bulky, old-timey nun habits like Ingrid Bergman wore in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945).

Sr. Carlotta taught me all my first grade classes, including Physical Education P.E., which she didn’t really teach. Every day after lunch, she marched us – girls in one line, boys in the other – out to the “big field.” Then she picked two team captains, presented one with a red ball, and instructed us to play kick ball while she sat on the bleachers under a big tree, grading papers.

And each and every day when the team captains chose their team members, I was the last one picked.

Through no deliberate intention of her own, Sr. Carlotta facilitated this daily “trauma” which ultimately motivated me to become more resilient and healthy. Eventually I grew out of my awkwardness and shyness, and despite (and perhaps motivated by) the pain, I chose to make good health a priority, gaining the intrinsic confidence needed to coach myself and others to success.

We shouldn’t be held captive by the fallout of our childhoods, realbuzz friends. Developing resiliency helps to overcome the negative and allows opportunity to flourish. According Drs. Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte, the authors of The Resilience Factor, the essential groundwork to change includes the following four beliefs:

Pillar 1: Life Change is Possible: Our past shapes who we are and what we do, yet we can shape new learning to overcome the past. What is learned can be unlearned.

Pillar 2: Thinking is the Key to Boosting Resilience: Our thoughts and emotions are the very core of who we are; they represent our essential humanity.

Pillar 3: Accurate Thinking is Key: Sometimes when it comes to accessing ourselves, situations, and others, we are “shoddy scientists.” We collect incomplete data, make errors in interpretation, and allow biased perceptions support our favored theory.

Pillar 4: Refocus on Human Strengths: Refocus on and foster inherent strengths – and remember strengths can be developed from weaknesses.

Indeed, by refocusing my weaknesses into strengths I eventually became a compassionate and enthusiastic motivator, especially to good-health underdogs.

How about you realbuzz friends? What ways might you develop your “fallouts” into strengths?

Until next time . . . a proud Mare