Bryan Parady's Blog, page 16

If It’s Not Hurting….

I’m on my way to hitting my end of year goal for my weight/muscle mass.  I still have a hard month and a half to go.  Sometimes I get tired, between work, my reserve duty, my family, and my side projects I feel like I have no time for the gym.  And in reality, sure I don’t.  Nobody has time for the gym when you really think about it.

But it’s a matter of making time.  Sure after a long crappy day at work I would love to just take a hot shower and chill, but the gym is calling, and I know if I don’t go I’ll really feel like crap the next day.

So don’t ask if you have time for the gym, because, no you don’t, but you have to make time for it.

The workout process is slow, it can be frustrating, you often won’t have a workout buddy, you often will be in pain, you often will have a million things you need to do.  Do it anyway.

The benefits of fitness are innumerable, not only do you feel and look better, but you are more prepared mentally for the challenges life throws at you.  Eat right, exercise.  Whether you love cross-fit, lifting, running, cycling, whatever it is, go all in.  Don’t dip your toes in just a little.  Dive in completely.  Go for the very best version of yourself.  You won’t be sorry.

Adventure is….out there?

I like adventure.  I like it a lot, and sometimes that scares me.  It scares me to think I may never get a huge adventure.  I mean, why do we love adventurous movies if not to live vicariously through the characters?

Life goes by at a furious pace.  Work, college, and the sort keep us super busy, just struggling some weeks to make it to the weekend.  I understand this isn’t the right way to live life.  Life shouldn’t be lived for the weekend, our week, our work, our studies should bring us life.  For me I guess I’m still in progress, because I’m not there yet.  I have moments of adventure for sure, and for those I am extremely grateful.

So the only thing for it is to press on, to dig deeper, work harder, and keep going until those dreams, those adventures are a reality.  Are an every day occurrence.

Paulo Coelho says it really well: “one day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

That then is my goal.

The Wait

So what do you do when you reach that point where you’ve done almost everything you can and are playing the waiting game.  The ball was passed to you, you did the best you could, and passed it back, now you wait.

For me I hate waiting, it feels like I’m being sucker punched.  I like doing things that need to be done now, and not putting them off.  Call it diligence, call it OCD, I’m not sure, but that’s the way I am.

It can be easy to get depressed when your waiting, I know because I’m going through this waiting game right now, as I wait to hear back from some job opportunities.  It’s frustrating to not know what will happen, but at the same time it’s necessary, it’s part of the process, as frustrating as it may be.  And so I wait, and keep striving forward.  It’s worth it to do what you love.

Making The Cut

So last night on the voice, many contestants went home.  Their long journey of giving up on jobs, college, school, and other activities in the hope of making it are over, while some others move forward still holding onto that dream.

So is it truly over for them?  Do they go back to their normal lives, defeated with despair?

The tears, the despair on some of their faces.  Life can be like this, we charge ahead thinking we are on the right path and are going to make it, then are blind-sided by an unexpected halt.  Sometimes these unexpected halts are not bad things, we find out our spouse is pregnant, we get a job transfer, layoff, or promotion.  All really good things, but that can unexpectedly cause our lives to go in a different direction.

When these things happen we have two options, we go in the new direction and ignore the other, or we find ways to make both work.  Will it be harder to move on now?  Absolutely.  New obstacles cause our dreams to get even harder.

Seeing voice contestants go home really makes me wonder, what they will do.   Will they give up, or will it cause them to push even harder, and go farther than anyone ever imagined.

Regardless of what comes in life to try to stop you, keep going.  Don’t let disappointment stop you, because regardless of what you do you will face it, but it’s not the end, it’s not the final statement.  I wish the best for those who didn’t make it.  If you are struggling with feeling like you are not making it, or have met with all the resistance you can take, please, keep going.  You can make it.  It may not be the way you think to the end goal, but get creative, don’t take rejection and prove the critics wrong.

You’ve got this.

You Don’t Need God’s Permission

I had a friend ask me the other day if I thought we are supposed to wait for God’s permission before following our dreams.  My response?  Absolutely not.

It seems like there’s this unspoken knowledge that if you are Christian you are supposed to sit quietly in your house and do nothing until a booming voice shakes the walls of your house, and the bath water in your tub parts.

Here’s the deal. God put dreams in you. Wild crazy dreams.  There are things that you are both extremely good at and love doing.  Maybe it’s painting, maybe it’s being a race car driver, maybe it’s being an awesome leader, or speaker.  Maybe it’s having a knack for fashion, or graphic design.  God put those things in you, you don’t just have these desires for no reason.  Go after them.  You have two hands, you have skills, put them to use!  Don’t just sit on your talent and dreams.

You go until you get an affirmative no from God, and if you don’t get no then you keep going.  You already have a green light, stop wasting time, stop waiting for “God’s timing” God’s timing started when you were born, so the clock is already ticking.  Get going!

What Do You Want More Than Anything?

What do you want more than anything?  Is is a spouse?  A dream job?  A certain amount of money?  To be a famous actor/athlete/singer?  We all have deep rooted dreams, that we want to see happen, but we also let reality get in our way.

Reality tells us that we need to have a fall back plan in case our dream doesn’t come true.  While this sounds logical and safe it’s a bad idea.  Now before you go selling everything you have and moving to your dream city, take a few things into consideration.  If you have a family then you have some responsibilities.  Your family needs to eat, needs a roof over their head, and has needs.  I’m not saying be irresponsible.  What I am saying is don’t settle for second best.

Because when we have lots of backup plans, we tend to focus on them more than our main plan.  We tend to take focus off our dream.

So don’t have a backup plan. Do whatever you have to, to keep pushing towards your goal.  Your why is in you already, it’s been there all your life, you know what it is.  So stop running from who you are and live it, scream it, and do it.

What’s The Point?

Have you ever asked yourself while in the middle of something “what’s the point”?  You get to that crisis point where you don’t know if you want to keep going or quit.  Every obstacle you thought of has hit you and then some, and you are plain worn out.

It’s not a fun place to be, and your mind can play tricks on you.  Your mind can make you believe that you’re just not going to make it, and that you should give up.  This can be a difficult place to be in.  Not only because you feel like you’re failing but because it causes you to question whether everything you’ve done up to this point has been pointless.

It’s not.

Yes it may feel like it you’ve gotten nowhere.  But take a step back and look and see how far you’ve come.  How much farther are you than when you started.  How much more knowledge do you have?  It may seem useless, it may seem like you are going nowhere because you are still not where you want to be.

But progress is progress, and you have moved forward.  Keep believing, keep striving, and keep going.

Opportunity Awaits

Just finished watching a documentary on living off one dollar a day.  It tracks the lives of some people living in Guatemala, and their struggle to rise above a life of poverty.  So much of what holds them back is just a lack of resources.  A lack of being able to get a loan for a business, or lack of being able to get an education.  And yet despite the odds people are still striving to make their own and others lives better.

It makes me ask, how much access to resources do I have?  I have so much at my disposal when it comes to resources, finances, training, education etc.  How much do I take for granted. How much do I think about what I don’t have, rather than what I do have?

I have so much and need to start focusing on the abundance I do have and how I can best utilize and use that.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far, dream, big and go far this weekend!

The Haters

    When you set out to do something you may be surprised at how many people question what you are doing. Even people who are close to you.  It’s like the very act of you stepping out and doing something different stirs up this animosity among others.

    It can be very challenging when you are faced with this. It makes you question whether you are making the right decision. After all, these are people I know and trust that are questioning my actions right?

    Don’t let it get to you.  People may have well meaning intentions but they are coming from that place of a safety net.  Without even knowing it some people respond negatively out of fear because they are so used to life being a certain way that change frightens them.  It causes them to question their own lives and if they are doing something wrong.

   Stick to your beliefs.  Your dreams, your goals are for you to conquer and achiece, no one else may understand the path you take, but keep believing in yourself. If you can take it you can make it.

Persistence

What does it take to win?  Sometimes I wonder myself.  There are so  many times in my life when I have to ask if I’m doing the right thing, or if I’m going to reach my goals.  Heck sometimes I wonder if I should throw in the towel and just give up.

But something in me clicks.  It’s not a realization that I’m going to reach them, it’s more that I know I have to persevere.  Perseverance sucks sometimes.  Sometimes you don’t want to persevere.  But more than talent, more than money, more than anything.  Perseverance is what takes you to what and where you want to be.  It’s not an overnight success story that magically clicks one day and then you are set.  It’s day after day, working towards your goals.  Don’t stop. Don’t give up.  Persevere.  It will be worth it.