You are YOUR Problem

In this new episode of “I Am Blessed and Have No Problems….”

Oh, I am not speaking that tongue-in-cheek here.

Because while I have been updating you all on my family-just-keep-MOVING-forward drama, I have never lost sight of the blessings and perfect things in my life.  And that was made more clear this morning. I have a friend (working wife and mother of two) who I just found out has a brain tumor, and is undergoing surgery shortly. I can’t even imagine how helpless that feeling is.  I’m sure that she’d much rather have a rental house with no functional AC, a pest problem, fallen trees on the roof, electrical issues, leaks everywhere, stinky carpet… than to have the uncertainty associated with health issues. I would rather keep my house than have to go through what she’s going through.  Duh.

This post from my faves, Marc and Angel Hack Life, hit home today.  Number 2 on their list of “6 Things Happy People Never Do” had a slap-your-momma quote. (I do not slap my momma, for the record. It’s Southern slang. Just being clear.)

“What other people call you is their problem…What you call yourself, and who you decide to become, is your problem.”

Dang-a-lang. See? You wanna slap-your-momma too!

You are YOUR problem.

Yes, that’s true. And I have known myself to be my biggest problem for awhile. It’s just when you read something like that…. wow.

So what do we do about it?

I had a great chat with one of my 12 Week Mentoring Program athletes today, who is tackling her first triathlon this weekend.  She’s got a case of the oh-crap-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into, which is a symptom that almost every triathlete, at some point, faces.

In the scary moments (big, scary life ones or “small” ones like triathlon—-I put “small” in quotes, because of course the effort isn’t small, just the life-or-death-real-life-drama of it is), the challenge is maintaining positivity and focus and controling the things we can.  While letting go of the things we cannot control.

Things I Control Today:
What I eat
What I say
How I react
What I think (positive thoughts only!)

I would add “my workout,” but everyone knows that’s not true.  You can only control showing up for the workout and trying to keep a strong mind during. All the rest is a giant question mark. 🙂

And while I can’t begin to imagine the terror that my friend is going through right now, I can only reach out and say that I am praying for her… and follow through on the prayers.

Things we can control.

This is a common theme on my blog.  Because most of us triathletes are crazy, type-A personalities at the start. That’s why triathlon is attractive to us: “What? You ‘only’ do one sport? Well, I do THREE sports in one race. So take that!”  It’s all very insane.  We want to control everything. We are go-getters.

And the struggle is not how hard or how fast to “go get”—- but rather, how to sit still for a moment and see and appreciate what we have.

A lesson I learn every, single day. Over and over again.  Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Gentleness. Self-control.

My heart usually runs over with “love.”   And today, I am pretty much overflowing with love for the Expert, who is really taking the bull by the horns with our housing situation and making real fixes (like buying portable air units, de-pesting the house so it’s liveable). I am so thankful for him.

And somehow, I am, at the same time, thankful for the whopping VAT of life lessons I’ve been learning lately.  [Oh, and the Expert’s race number this weekend was 33, which is my fave, lucky number.]

The rest of…  Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Gentleness. Self-control….well, I’m just a giant hot mess in progress. An Iron mess in progress, mind you… 😉  (Which STILL feels like a dream, by the way, thanks for asking. A dream.)

So. Let’s all take a moment today to count our blessings, say “thank you” and “love you” to those who matter… and then go get that workout and kick butt.