Sunday morning, as I started my morning routine, listening to a spiritual message on YouTube, I was thinking about what I would talk about for my Facebook Live presentation later that day.
I’ve been doing these Live videos for about three weeks now as part of a Challenge for the personal trainer coaches group I’m a member of, to learn a new way to reach more people who are looking for help, and help them.
That’s why I’m doing the Live videos, and so I thought, well, why not talk about WHY you became a personal trainer in the first place? Why are you learning how to reach more people who are looking for help?
Here’s the reason:
My mission, if you will, is contained in the subtitle to my book, “Finally Fit.”
That subtitle reads: “It’s Never Too Late to Achieve a Dream.”
When I was about to turn 60 years old, it was not a happy time in my life, to say the least. I was way overweight, depressed, drinking too much, and I didn’t really know what to do about it. Every day was the same ol’ story. As I heard a guy say once, “I was so far off the track, I didn’t even know I was off the track.”
Divine intervention or something stepped in one day and a series of incredible circumstances led to me learning to pole vault for the first time in my life, which eventually led to me getting my life back together and learning to be happy again.
It was such a turnaround, with so many people telling me that what I was doing was inspiring, that in talking to a close friend, I decided to go after my personal training certification to try and help other people who might be in a similar situation to what I had been in. Unhappy or dissatisfied with their life but not knowing what to do about it. Not knowing that it is possible to turn things around, no matter how late it is in the game.
I was officially diagnosed with mild depression and anxiety sometime around my middle 40s. Like anybody else, life was up and down over the years, and there was more good than bad. I accomplished quite a bit. Winning some journalism awards, writing and publishing a dozen books, traveling to Europe several times. But it was never enough. I’d get up for a while, and then fall back down again.
Then, summer 2017 rolled around.
None of my other milestone birthdays were a big deal, like they are for some people. Turning 30 was nothing special. Same thing with 40 and 50. Didn’t bother me. But as no. 60 approached, for some reason, it was different.
For the first time, I thought about how close that seemed to the end of the road; how much time it felt like I had wasted doing stupid stuff, making bad decisions; letting other people and myself down; not achieving enough.
It took some time, and a lot of work, but I learned a lot in the next couple of years about myself, about life, and about how to be happy again. And I want to share what I’ve learned with other people who can benefit from my experiences. I know they’re out there, and maybe I can help.
I’m about to turn 65 this summer and I told someone the other day, I hope it doesn’t affect me the way turning 60 did.
I don’t think it will.
I’ve come a long way since 2017, and I truly believe …
The best is yet to come.
