My Raincoat Holds Water!?!?

I just got back from a 45-minute walk outside in the park.?It was beautiful, flowers are blooming, and I had the entire park to myself.?In reality, that’s pretty rare.?Rare because it is always bustling with dog walkers, software players, runners, walkers, parties, bands and more.

Today, for the first time I was walking in, what looks like will be a flood of a day.?It is raining Cats and Dogs!

I’ll admit, I am a “fair weather” walker/runner.?So you may be asking, or not, “why Kim are you out in this?”

Let me back up to 10 days ago.?The day before we went on vacation.

I wasn’t lifting anything.?I had bent down to plug in my IPad, then I collapsed.

My back went out and I couldn’t stand any longer.?It made no sense to me but I made it to my office chair.?

The rest of the afternoon was spent in my chair.?

The next day we went on vacation to Chicago where we did a walking vacation.?I didn’t push it too much.?I rested when I needed to rest and by the time we got home, I was fine.

That was 5 days ago when we got home.?After just five minutes of walking in the door, not an exaggeration, I am helping my son up the stairs with the luggage and I go down again.?Legs go out from under me and I can’t sit, I can’t stand.?

I am stuck on the landing with my very emotionally-sensitive dog next to me trying to take care of me.

We, dog and I, crawl up the stairs and too the bed screaming, crying, and laughing. Which brought the entire family into the room not knowing exactly what to do or how to help. I asked them to grab me a few things, including some pain meds and just leave me there.?I didn’t want to move.?

As the afternoon went on, I started monitoring how quickly I was getting better based on the time it took me to move from the bed to the bath room.?Trial run #1 was 30 minutes with screaming, crying, and laughing.?By dinner time I was down to 5 minutes with no crying.

I had dinner in bed.

On Sunday, I found staying in bed was still the safest place for me.?So I started pondering. Which is never a good thing.?In this case, I think it was.

I started asking myself, what is my body trying to tell me.?I haven’t been pushing my exercise too hard, so it’s not telling me to back off.?But this is clearly a warning.?So what??What is it?

So I start scrolling on LinkedIN and Scott Himes stopped my scroll with his big “WIN.”?He completed #75Hard!

After reading more about it.?I was truly impressed.?

I signed up!?I didn’t make any excuses.?And there could have been tons of them.?I could miss a day, but so what, I will start over.?You might be asking, what is 75Hard??Here is the short story so you will keep reading this first.?The link to their webpage is at the end, so hang with me a little bit longer.

75 Hard – for 75 days, IN A ROW you need to:

• Do 2x 45 minute workouts and one must be outside
• Follow a diet
• Drink 1 gallon of water
• Read 10 pages
• Take a progress pic
• AND, no alcohol and no cheating on your diet

There you have it.?

After reading that list, I didn’t hesitate. I signed up.?I let my body tell me (my gut in this case, thank you Vicki LaRose) that this is what I needed.?Why, I wasn’t sure at the time, but I would figure that out along the way.

Oh yeah! REALITY check. So how in the world am going to exercise 90 full minutes with 45 minutes outside.?And there is the fact I can’t walk more than a few steps without severe pain.

Then I reach out to my girlfriend and lawyer and ask her to do it with me. ?I needed help with accountability.?I didn’t fear failure, but I wanted that extra push that I was doing this for more than just me.

Score!?She said “YES.”

So I pulled up my big girl pants and got creative.

The 75 Hard criteria didn’t say I had to do a 45-minute run at 7 miles/minute.?And what I need right now is to heal, to get stronger.

I asked one of my children to bring me a 5 lb weight outside, a bottle of water, and the newspaper to the patio.?Then for 45 minutes I strengthened my biceps and triceps (which are pretty weeny), read the paper, and started on my gallon of water for the day.

Now mind you, I am only on day 4 and the last 3 days have been painful.?But only in my back.?I’ve actually enjoyed ticking off the list each day.

Which leads me to today and my inspiration in the park.

While I could have viewed it as a dreary day and gave up on the 45-minute workout outside which would have me starting over, instead I put on my raincoat and headed out.?There are a few things I discovered in the park while I was out:

• It’s peaceful when no one is there
• My raincoat holds water, a lot of water
• I can strategically partner on marketing with another business owner because we have the very same ideal client
• My pace is getting faster
• I can’t jump over the puddles that are the size of a small lake
• My mind is clear today
• The birds are singing and the Magnolias are blooming
• Trust Vicki, Trust Myself

After my walk, and drying off, I sat to write you this story because I can tell I am on the verge of “innovating” my life.?It’s not just to get my body stronger with exercise, water, and a proper diet. It’s not just for my mind and further mature my mental “grit.”?It’s not just to improve my business by reading business books.

I truly view it as a way to INNOVATE my life.?

Every…single…aspect of it.

I am on a mission to create a 75x multiple on my life.

This by no means is a sponsorship or advertisement for 75Hard.com. It's not for everyone.?It just happens to be the program I am using to disrupt my comfort zone.?There is no way I can help my family, friends and my clients if I can’t get out of bed.

Now my questions for you are…

“How can you be a better leader, a better business owner, a better partner, parent, child, sister/brother, friend…?”

“How could be better mentally and physically to make better decisions, to communicate more effectively…?”

”How are you going to innovate your life today?”

Find your way to be the best version of you. If you value anything, value what you can give to others by giving your best. When you do that, you’ll receive even more of what you give.?You can’t give what you don’t have.

Join me on this journey of Innovation. However, you want to get there, it's your journey.