What the world needs is people who COME ALIVE!

Welcome to 2012! A week or so into the year, my mother-in-law asked what my word was going to be…my verb for 2012. A word to guide me through the year. A word to root me. To inspire me. A word that I would like to be used at the end of the year to describe what I did with 2012….

I chose “stretch.”

My goal for the year, my 27th, is to stretch my mind, stretch my body… stretch my limits.

2011 was unquestionably a year of change for me and Matt. In January, I started a new job. Then decided to quit and take another offer by March. I was making good money, but still unfulfilled (one of the reasons I left my job at the end of 2010). Matt was starting school (to get his MBA), and he inspired me to do the same. I wanted to help people. I was tired of… not making a difference. So, I enrolled in some classes to start the change in my career… from marketing to medicine (or healing of some sort).

I quit my second job of the year and took a chemistry and an anatomy and physiology course last fall. Most of the majors I was interested in required both (Physical Therapy, Nutrition, Nursing…) . I made an A and B. Not too bad, but the B in A&P helped me realize the journey I was about to undertake. Do I really want to spend what could be the prime of my life in school…or studying all the time…whichever major I choose will at least be 3 more years…of intense studying...nothing but school... Do I want this THAT bad? Yes, I want to make a difference in someone else’s life, but I also want to live mine. I am a newlywed with no kids. In my late twenties – ‘the clock is ticking.’ Matt and I are fortunate enough to be able to go places and do things for week(s) at a time without having to worry about a baby or the bills (we still pay them, but we are able to do both – you know what I mean.)…

Well… before I officially quit my job, I decided to buy the materials to become a certified personal trainer. My idea was to work in a gym or for myself part time for fun while I went back to school. Being a personal trainer is something I have always been interested in. Fitness has always been a part of my life… and it was always nice to be the one friends came to for fitness advice from high school through college… and even when I started in the workplace… I loved it.

Howard Thurman once said: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

I agree.

On that note, I decided to pursue a career as a personal trainer.

Stretch!

After taking my previously scheduled exams, GRE, and TEAS tests, I took my NASM certification test on Jan 26. I passed… and am now in the process of making it happen. www.fit4yourlife.com

…to be continued…