100 Days of Self-Respect

By September 30, 2014Inspiration

Have you ever jaywalked? Taken a shortcut to get from here to there? Dashed in a flash out in front of traffic, only to slow the pace halfway across to an insouciant saunter? Like getting to the other side didn’t really matter?

I have.

My resolution at the beginning of 2014 was “To treat myself with the respect I deserve, and deserve the respect with which I treat myself.” A pretty phrase that got me a few attagirls early in the year.

I let myself down.

I let myself off the hook. Let myself dash halfway into my goals and then stall, like a stunned pedestrian about to get smooshed by a truck.

Last week I watched my number one inspiration crush as he crushed another goal in personal wellbeing, got down to his fighting weight and dead-lifted something really really heavy. Earlier this year he freed himself from excuses and got down to the daily business of putting his body back together after a long bout of recovering. From getting smooshed by a truck.

Every single day he has respected himself enough to not give up. There is no quit in him. Every. Single. Day. Today, the transformation is stunning.

Last Tuesday I got smacked – in the middle of doing nothing – with a challenge, courtesy of  Matthew Trinetti:
If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?
If you could make good on something you’ve neglected over the past year, what would you do?
If you could dramatically increase the progress of a project, why not do it now?
“There are 100 days left in 2014.” He asked: “What are you going to do with them?”

“Look,” I answered myself. “100 days. Time to transform.” And I took a good hard look at two projects that crave my attentive self-respect. My writing and my physical wellbeing.

Transformation is about taking chances and taking the time to let the chances we take transform us. Every Tuesday, à la #transformationtuesday, I’ll post my progress here.