Move and Inspire!
The other day a text conversation I had been having ended with ‘you guys are my heroes’! Wow, I thought that was just such a nice thing to say especially coming from someone who I have really been inspired by, it meant so much. Then the following day after Dave had written a few thoughts on ‘being strong to be helpful’, we had a lovely comment on the post from someone I would look up to in our field and my initial reaction was ‘wow, she read our post! I would have never thought that we may even be on her radar!!
I’ve always appreciated everyone on the same level but it’s still easy to find yourself putting someone else up above on a pedestal. And while I often look up to others, on occasion I have been reminded that I have been a huge inspiration to others too. Two memories that will stay warm to my heart include when I was about to leave to head home after spending 6 months in Australia. I had been fortunate enough while I was racing professionally in long distance triathlons to have been able to take advantage of an opportunity to stay with a friend and just train and compete for a while. In that time I had been training with a local swim team, consisting mainly of juniors who were way speedier than me. When I was saying goodbye at the end of the 6 months I was told I would be really missed and that I’d been a great inspiration to the youngsters! Wow I thought I had just been the slow one at the back of the lane, I wouldn’t have thought I was inspiring them too much! I guess my dedication and what I was up to with my life was a great inspiration. On another occasion, I had stayed with a family while in Japan for a week to race in the Ironman. When I was saying my goodbyes after an amazing week with my ‘second’ family, the 6 year old daughter was sobbing. We had spent some fun times together and although we had very few words exchanged we had become pretty close in a short time. Her mum later told me that she said after I left that she had started swimming lessons and wants to be an Ironwoman one day! So nice to hear:-)
Anyway, where am I going with all of this? Basically I’m waffling about how we are all inspiring in our own ways and if by just doing what we love doing and are passionate about, we will be inspiring others. I’m convincing myself this whilst descending down a mountain side for the second time, passing the same people at the bottom – they either think I’m crazy or just maybe they are inspired by the craziness. In a similar way, many of us have been out there in these past weeks, wrapped up for a freezing cold, snowy run, and your neighbors may have been thinking when they see you head out ‘well there goes the crazy couple from next door again’ or maybe ‘wow they are so dedicated’!
So following Dave’s thoughts about being strong to be helpful, in this way this is kinda helpful in my book. The more people we can all inspire by getting out there and doing it, the better and you never know who you may be reaching out to…
And if we keep at it, we will be doing it through our later years. Another inspirational thought just to throw in there… I will always remember whilst working at my brothers pub one lunchtime, serving a lovely older lady and her daughter. It turned out that the daughter was treating her mum to her birthday lunch, her 92nd birthday. I was honestly shocked to learn her age as she looked so good, moved well and totally had all of her marbles! She put many 70 somethings to shame I thought to myself! So in chatting with them I learnt that she had only just recently dropped down from her daily ritual of swimming a mile as she had started to feel that was a bit much. Proof is in the pudding, you can inspire at any age, as she did me and you can keep doing what you love until you stop doing it. Keep moving and you’ll be able to keep moving longer…
And if we can be of inspiration to you, we love to inspire! So contact DNA and start to move well with us!…