Do you feel as though you are resilient?

Do you feel like you have the mental capability to recover quickly from a difficult or tough situation?

I never did either, until I had to. I have discovered that I am more resilient than I ever knew possible and when put to the test, like losing my father, or realizing I had cancer, and most recently finding out my mom has cancer, I found out I was very resilient. I get asked all the time how I stay so positive. My mom’s cancer is yet another obstacle I am dealing with currently and I could easily shut down and close everyone off.

In my job as a trainer and also in my personal life I constantly get the question how do you keep your life so balanced? How do you constantly deal with all the stressors in your life and stay so positive? How do you constantly get knocked down and continue to get back up? I just tell them that I have to stay positive. I can’t let every little thing that knocks me down keep me down. If that were the case, I would never get anything accomplished. I have to have a plan, stick with it and even if I get off track every once in a while, I need to get back on course and get right back to the grinder.

I have just recently celebrated my 35th birthday. I had a whole weekend of parties that weren’t all that healthy. I allowed myself to indulge and partake in the festivities, not feeling guilty about it, and continue back on the plan that following week. To me, the plan is having my food all prepped; cooked and packaged and ready to go so that I had no excuse but to get right back to eating healthy. I will have food all ready, in pre packed containers so that when the week rolls around and my life starts to get busy again, I have those containers all ready to go so I have no excuses. When put in a situation like my birthday weekend when I know I am going to be eating not quite as clean, I make sure that the week leading up to and following I am eating clean and watching what I eat so that I CAN indulge and not feel guilty.

When you ARE knocked down and you feel as though you have nothing left and nowhere else to go, what DO you turn to? Do you turn to food, alcohol? Do you shut down and push everyone away? Everyone deals with these stressful events in different ways. I had to make a decision years ago what I was going to do.

How I was going to deal with stress and a terrible situation.

I had two choices, to either persevere and move on, fighting and overcoming my injuries, cancer and loss of my father. Or shutting down, feeling sorry for myself and giving up. I now have an amazing job as a firefighter/ paramedic. I am a trainer at a studio and I am healthier and happier than I have ever been and I am stronger, and more confident than ever. I could have completely given up and thrown in the towel but decided to be a fighter. I developed a plan that would work for me and decided to clean up my life, my diet and train harder than I ever have before. This has helped me in my professional career as well. It is very hard to be a female firefighter and the constant struggle of trying to prove yourself while also staying humble yet confident.

I think resilience is a huge part of being successful in life, whether in your career, personal life, or whatever struggle you're dealing with currently. Be strong, pick yourself up and realize you are better, stronger and more powerful than any situation you are dealt with. I feel like I can overcome any situation thrown at me now and this is a huge part of my success in my career. We are placed in a lot of compromising situations where things could go bad quickly and you have to stay confident and on your toes at all times.

Having the confidence I have now with overcoming the things I have overcome and BEING resilient has enabled me to be that confident and have the strength and courage to perform in these stressful situations.