Enjoy The Ride

Eric Karls • June 12, 2024

Find happiness now

It’s about the journey, not the destination. I am 100% behind the idea of constant improvement. I actually have a lot of distain for anyone who doesn’t. I view it as though they are wasting the gift that they have been given. With that said, if you cannot find happiness in the exact spot that you are currently at, you will never find it.
 
Too many people think that they will be happy when they lose the weight, get in shape, have the successful business. Unfortunately, those goals have nothing to do with making you happy. You’ll find that once you reach them, you’re not thin enough, not in good enough shape, and that you still don’t make enough money. 
 
“PEACE, IT DOES NOT MEAN TO BE IN A PLACE WHERE THERE IS NO NOISE, TROUBLE, OR HARD WORK. IT MEANS TO BE IN THE MIDSTS OF THOSE THING AND STILL BE CALM IN YOUR HEART.”

This is a quote from the book: Maybe You Should Talk To Someone ~Lori Gottlieb

I love this message because I think we focus on trying to avoid and eliminate hardships in our lives. All this leads to is crumbling under the pressure when those hardships appear. My good friend Rocky once told me that “life is a mean and nasty place, that it will beat you to your knees if you let it.”

Life’s beatings are inevitable and out of our control. What we do control ishow we react to them. We also control what habits we develop in the day to daythat help strengthen us and condition what those reactions will be.

Always remember what my other good friend Bruce L. said, “Don’t pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”
 
So how to embrace the journey?


Gratitude: I know, this is has been said at nauseam by every self-hep guru and tech-millionaire describing their morning routine, but it really is true. We live in the absolute best and easiest time in human history, it’s easy to loose sight of everything we have. Do you think people in the 1800’s bitched about what Susan said or had to take mental health days? NO! They were too busy working their asses of to survive and make sure they had at least one meal a day. Think of what you are grateful for. What in your life, if striped away, means the most? For me, my wife, my daughters, and my family. I am grateful for never having to wonder where my next meal comes from or if my home will be warm in the winter. I also grateful for the opportunity everyday to push myself to be better. I want to see everyday as a gift and never want to look back on my life and realize that I wasted that gift.

 
Embrace the SUCK:
“The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.” Change your paradigm about how you view hardship. Instead of fearing it and constantly avoiding it, run to it. Know when you start to feel the squeeze, that it is a good thing. Pressure turns coal into diamonds, so know without it, you will never shine. Also, take a look at how you’re avoiding/coping with that pressure. Food, alcohol, drugs, and/or social media/TV. As stated before, we live in the easiest of times and it’s so easy to self-medicate our problems away. The problem is, they don’t go away, so we rinse and repeat those shitty habits and it leaves us with a life we aren’t grateful for.
 
Positivity: Read The 7 Day Mental Diet ~Dr. EmmetFox. It’s 22 pages and challenges its readers to only allow their thoughts to be positive for 7 straights days. It’s not easy, but if you can do it, it will change your metal outlook. It also makes any nutrition or fitness pursuit seem like child’s play in comparison. Also, no one wants to be around someone who complains all the time. 50% of people don’t give a shit about your problems and the other 50% are glad it’s happen to you and not them.It’s Ok to speak about your challenges, but only when you’re looking for a solution to them, not when you just want to complain.
 
Everything is serious, but nothing is: Work your ass off, become the absolute best version of yourself, and help as many others along the way as you can. But, always remember when things get too serious or stressful, we are just a bunch of hairless monkeys spinning around on a gigantic rock that is floating out in the middle of nowhere. God has a great sense of humor, everything is going to be OK.

Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. Philippians 4:6-7
 
Until next week, enjoy the ride!
 
In Strength,
 
Eric Karls M.Ed.
Chief Awesomeness Engineer
Certified Level 3 CrossFit Coach
CrossFitConductor

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