Monday, October 5, 2015

A Little Encouragement

This week folks, I did something absolutely extroardinary. I did what's called " beating the deck". What is beating the deck? It is something that not everyone can do and feels absolutely amazing when you do. As you have most likely read in previous posts, My wonderful and amazing boyfreind is also my trainer, well he has this system where you use a deck of playing cards to determine how many repititions to do for an excercise. Jokers are 25 reps each hand, Aces are 20,Kings down to Jacks are 15 reps each hand and the rest are face value. In total, the deck contains 1252 reps. What I did to beat the deck was complete 1252 reps with a 14.8lb sledge hammer against a tire. The total weight I lifted was 8.6 tons!

You may be asking yourself what on earth does this have to do with being a butterfly. In my opinion, it has absolutely everything to do with it. If tiny me at a staggering 4'11" can move 8.6 tons worth of weight, I can do anything I put my mind to. Us butterflies constantly hear comments about how we can do certain things because we are too small. Just because we are small, doesn't mean we aren't strong both mentally and physically.

The way I see it, if I can do that amazing feat of beating the deck....the rest of you reading this can do something very similiar. I'm not just talking brute physical strength here. I'm talking about getting an A on that really important test, getting to law school or medical school, becoming a college or professional athlete, Whatever you set your mind to, if you have the right drive and determination you can always meet your goal.

Trust me when I say that beating the deck was both a physical and mental struggle. It took me just over an hour to hit that hammer against the tire 1252 times. About half way through my body was telling me to give up, I'd beat the deck another day. My brain on the other hand was telling me that I began the day telling myself that today was the day that I was going to complete this feat and I needed to do what I told myself  I was going to do. It took a lot, but I pushed and pushed and beat the deck the day I decided to.

I hope this story gives you a little incentive to go after your dreams, whether you are a butterfly or not. Us butterflies go through a lot of hurdles, but we can always jump over them...never go around. May we always soar!!!!