June 18, 2018
Late December, right after Christmas, I locked myself in a hotel room, sat in silence for hours, reflected on the past year and set goals for 2018. With my mom-entrepreneur friend, Karie, we took 10 minute breaks and opened the door to our neighboring rooms every few hours to share snacks, notes and ideas.
Hard to believe that mommy lockdown was just six months ago.
Since then, in January I guested on the Today Show in New York, in February I attended a conference in San Diego, in March I hosted an expo in Hawaii, in May we went on a cruise through Germany, Norway and Denmark and recently we celebrated our first European NEM retreat in Paris and our 2nd annual U.S. retreat in Chicago. As I sit here just a few days into our sons summer break, I’m fatigued but eerily ready to conquer more.
Newton’s 1st Law of Motion states that a body in motion, stays in motion and a body at rest will remain at rest.
A few weeks ago, I fell asleep at 8pm and didn’t awake until 8am the next day. As a result of over-sleeping, I was fatigued throughout most of the day, took several naps and fell asleep early again. Most recently, due to my excessive travel, I’ve been missing workouts, having irregular sleeping patterns and feeling unwell.
It’s difficult to find motion again, even in these minute moments in-between large life events. The only thing that disrupts a body at rest or in motion, is if an outside force acts upon it. For me, this external force can be manipulated by internal motivation, whether directed by fear or love, these powerful feelings can drive us to failure or greatness.
The first step in any journey, whether it’s the beginning of a 12 week fitness challenge, or just a simple Tuesday – is to be aware of where you’re at. For myself, today I am tired, premenstrual and perennially sleepy. In these last several months, despite my travel schedule, I still attended nearly every school fieldtrip, cooked and cleaned nightly, did laundry bi-weekly, watched sports games, attended local family/friend events and managed my carehomes.
So now I am at rest.
And that’s ok.
We tend to focus on movement – whether it’s the time we travel, exercise, create – but it’s the moments when we rest, when our strength also deepens. When physically training, the goal is to challenge the muscle to the point that it strains the muscle fibers and causes it to break. Only when rested will the muscle fibers repair and form new muscle, which ultimately makes us stronger.
This is why I said yes to Karie when she encouraged me to take a 36hr lockdown after the holiday season. This is why I don’t workout on Sundays. And this is why I haven’t been posting on my social media very often.
We need a break.
We need to remember why we’re here, why we do what we do and why it’s important to get up each morning.
I want to be a positive change in the lives of my family, community and world around me. This goal ignites my motivation to hustle harder and persevere even when I’m the last person to sleep and the first one to get up.
Life challenges me, but my reflections while at rest, strengthen me.
We need to STOP and remember what direction we’re robotically moving in on a daily basis. If we don’t re-calibrate our aim, we will go wherever the wind takes us. Focus is key, direction is important but motivation matters – after all, that’s the force that break the laws of motion.
Karie Robinson is the owner of Event Show Pro. She hosts wedding, kids and women’s expos yearly.
I really enjoyed my time with Megyn Kelly Today in NYC in January. You can
watch my clip here.
We went on a great RV trip around Northern CA and Oregon during President’s Day
weekend with the kiddos! Best Part? Ranger got to come!
We spent Easter in Hawaii!
We flew my mother-in-law in to watch the kids so we can have our first international
trip without children since our honeymoon! We visited Germany, Norway and Denmark.
I absolutely LOVED our 1st European NEM Retreat in Paris! Thank you to our Regional Manager,
Lisa Saci, for organizing this!
We did so many fun things in Chicago for our 2nd Annual NEM Retreat. I will post a blog post up about it soon!
Love this image taken by Ayaka Sano!
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