On to the good stuff! Breathe. Nope, this is not a post about the benefits of proper breathing techniques while lifting, although that would be a great post! This is more about taking the time to sit back, take in the warm summer air, and just breathe. All sorts of stuff has happened with me over the past six months. I have been up, down, and sideways. It's basically been one of the biggest roller coaster rides of my life and it left me more confused, lost, and overwhelmed than I've ever been. I forgot what it meant to live for the things I most hope for in life, and I got caught up in so much negativity I began to lose the ability to be positive and happy myself. This is always a tough place to find yourself in, and while I'm sure everyone experiences it, and I would honestly say that everyone SHOULD experience it, I really don't wish it on anyone. Everyone deserves to be happy. Everyone deserves to experience joy, positivity, and good. And everyone deserves the opportunity to live a life they dreamed of. The really cool thing to realize is that these things are constantly available to you if you just know where to look, how to ask, and how to take them.
With my days filling up with clients, workouts, social media craziness, and programming, I am finding it somehow easier and easier to just take a moment (even though the moments are sparse) to just sit down, gaze into the woods, and breathe. And every time I do, good things flood in:
I love that I can sit on a plyo box in my tiny little gym and look into the woods.
I love that every day, athletes of all shapes, sizes, and ages come in to work hard, have fun, and get better at whatever it is they hope to get better at!
I love standing in the backyard in the humid evening air, charcoal fire slowly cooking a grill-full of grass-fed steak, chicken and asparagus for my wonderful feasting.
I love the sweat dripping down my face as I grab the chalked-up bar, every inch of me focused on executing my next rep as perfectly as I can. Getting stronger, getting faster, getting better.
I love my friends who I know I can call and meet up with to fill up hours of energetic and fulfilling conversation. Having groups and individuals who support you in being who you want to be and challenge you to keep perfecting that is becoming more important to me every day.
I love the hope of another day bringing more experiences, more smiles, more challenges and more excitement. The next few months are going to be tough, I know that much. I have TONS of people to train, I have tons of training to do myself. I have major life-choices to make that no matter how you look at them, will make some people upset. But I see so much more clearly now that that sort of thing is just a part of life. Challenging decisions are the ones that end up changing your life the most, so they are not to be taken lightly. The only thing you can do is clear your mind of the things that weigh you down, and the answer will come to you, more obvious than ever!
I love hope. But I hope I'm not addicted to it.
I love learning. I love learning through doing. I love learning from failure. I love learning through succeeding. I love learning from reading. I love learning most through watching.
How many of you could articulate what it means to be happy, successful, positive, satisfied and generally GOOD with yourself and the world? And how many of you are DOING it? Because Batman is the greatest character in the history of anything in the world, it's obvious that I would use quotes from those movies and comics:
"It's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you"
LIVE the life you want and not only your life, but the lives of people around you will be wonderful.
Never Stop, GET FIT.
Josh Courage


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