Thank you to The Art of Blogging for providing me with some motivation and my word of the day! Cristian Mihai’s post came just when I needed a little pep talk!

Merriam-Webster defines PERSEVERANCE:

continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : steadfastness

I have been fighting some kind of “crud” for the past 2 weeks and have not been feeling all that great, and thanks to a hacking cough, not getting enough sleep either. Feeling under the weather, without much physical or mental energy has challenged this venture along with most of my daily activities.

I understand that it takes effort, time, dedication and a few road blocks for anything to succeed. However, not feeling my best, left me frustrated and focused only on what I couldn’t do or wasn’t doing. It came to me today, with that magical 4 syllable word, that I’m still in control and I make the choices on how I spend what energy I have (this applies even when I’m 100%). My workouts and my time working on my blog (and a few other things) had to take a backseat for a few days but that’s OK, its temporary.

I need to better acknowledge when my body (and brain) needs a break. I need to honor those feelings, when I have them, not just push them to the side and keep going.  My health is now one of the most important things to me. I must acknowledge this fact in all the decisions I make and do what matters to me to be healthy and active. I compare it to how I’ve learned that being more organized and using a list helps me have more time to do the things I want and enjoy.

I know this just a temporary set-back to my overall goals. Thanks to a motivating word and getting  a decent nights sleep I can put things in perspective and start easing back into all my activities. In the meantime, it is wonderful sitting outside in the shade writing this blog and starting to feel re-energized. This is a tiny blip in my big picture. I may not fair as well on my upcoming hikes as I had wanted but I get to go on vacation, I get to hike, I get to spend time with my adventure buddy and there is not one thing wrong with any of that!