An Epic Adventure
This was me at the end of August.
I knew things were shifting but wasn’t sure how. I’d spent years as a writer and was sharing how I do world building at a writers event held at a bookstore. But something was missing. Nope, I couldn’t have told you exactly what.
It was like I had the idea for this epic story and I knew who the sheroine was supposed to be but I couldn’t get past the middle. She couldn’t get past the same lessons successfully so she could move on to the next level. It was like something she wasn’t able to recognize was holding her back. She had a blindspot.
There I was, knowing the adventure I’d set out on was meant to be epic but I was thwarted at every turn, like Lafia in Light of the Dark Moon.
What I did was unexpected. I decided that my epic life waited but it didn’t have to look like the one I’d started writing. I changed the plot. Sure, the end goal to have some positive impact on the world is still there, especially women, but how I do it…that changed. I looked at the tools I held and remembered one very important thing I’ve built into every book I’ve written.
You can’t help others at the level of a hero or shero until you acknowledge your weaknesses, choose to make those internal transformations, train for that epic life and see the transformation on the outside as well and THEN, once mind, body and that indelible spirit are truly in sync through some challenging physical and mental personal growth that demands a stronger spirit, THEN you’re ready to show up and act.
And that action doesn’t have to be big. It can be one seemingly small thing. If you’re on a wellness journey maybe it’s something that doesn’t even seem related. For me, it was making a commitment to do something for me consistently.
My goal was to not skip a single day for at least 30 days. You know what it was? Duo Lingo. Even just 2-3 minutes each day consistently did something for me. Like, yea, you did a whole week, then two weeks. I loved feeling like I was doing something to get better at something I wanted to get better at for me. Every day.
I knew my health had suffered over the past three years. I’d put on 30 pounds in that time and despite knowing I should exercise, I flat out didn’t want to. It was the last weekend in August when I casually said I don’t like going to the gym and didn’t want to work out to one of my neighbors with a nice home gym. And I (thought) I meant it. I knew what I needed to do but I wasn’t doing it.
Less than two weeks later it clicked that I could do something else. I could work on my health and get back in shape. I had to chuckle at myself for my comment about not liking working out.
Sometimes it’s just a little thing you do in some area you care about for yourself that sets that wheel in motion.
Many of us, myself included, are like Lafia. Feeling like failures, looking for our magic because we know there’s gotta be something more. And we’re not wrong.
Lafia wanted to make a difference but first she needed her magic. Just the desire to get her magic back so she could rule set everything else in motion in a way that meant she’d never be the same.
What if we did just one thing for ourselves that set things in motion for an epic life? What would that thing be for you?
