MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

REMEMBER

Sometimes we allow life to get in the way, infiltrate our mind with its fear, doubt, and worries, our circumstances looking bleak instead of an opportunity for change. Are you swimming or drowning in it? Are the things that once used to make you so happy now pulling you down into the depths of despair?

When the things we love become the things that destroy us, what then? We need to REMEMBER - WHY we loved it, what it was that gave us so much joy and peace, smiles before the tears, laughter before the screaming. We need to REMEMBER, and in doing so, maybe make our burden a little lighter.

Let your memories be sweet. Let yourself remember how much you loved. Live without floundering, without sinking, feeling like every day is a battle just to stay afloat. Because all the energy you’re exerting to try and simply STAY here is draining you of energy you could be using for something ELSE.

Remember what it was like and THANK the past for HAPPENING, giving you such blessings, knowing that not all things are meant to last - and nothing ever will. Give yourself time to grieve, but allow yourself to move ON, so that you CAN “live again”.

© Rosie Chee

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

THE PATHS UNINTENDED

Sometimes talking with someone new can open up new perspectives, give new thought and ideas, offer new options. It may be merely by chance such an interaction, but it can have more effect than you know as what has been discussed mulls over in your mind. Where once logic ruled emotions had been allowed to take more control and now both are trying to work together to decide the best course of action, even as at the end of the day, instinct and “listening to your gut” will be the final determinant.

We all have times when we lose our way and even what had not so long ago been the surest of paths in front of us becomes blurry with doubt. Yet we must KEEP going, for there is no stopping. There can be no stopping, for if we rest we might get caught up in the fog and wander from all reason entirely.

Yet despite all reason, sometimes we stop. We want to rest. We want to close our eyes and seek comfort in that outside our realm. Sometimes it helps calm the storm and bring clearer vision. Sometimes it only exacerbates the situation and we find ourselves caught in the world we disappeared into when we “wake” again.

But there is hope. There is ALWAYS hope. No matter how dark the darkness, how unsure your footing on the path, whether there even IS a path to follow, you move. And in the moving you either find the path or create a NEW one.

Creating a new path, one not “foreseen” before you began your journey, is not all bad. Sometimes not all roads are meant to be traveled and in the “crossroads” of our “blindness” we unerringly come to the one that will start a new chapter in our life’s journey. A chapter that will force more growth, but in the doing open up different opportunities and viewpoints that we might not have considered or seen before.

Everything for a reason, so they say. Perhaps. Or maybe there is no “end” and the journey is the “creation”, for it is the journey where we struggle and learn and grow and evolve into something more than we were. EMBRACE the process. Be grateful that you are still alive to travel. Welcome the unexpected companions you come across along the way, whether they are meant to walk with you for mere minutes or far longer. You have nothing to lose, so let instinct guide you.

© 2014 Rosie Chee

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

BLINK OF AN EYE

Life can change in a heartbeat; a minute moment in time that you might not even notice. In the blink of an eye your entire WORLD can change; made into something you do not recognize. Life is UNpredictable, unwavering in its sudden changes in course; determined to see how much we value what we claim as precious and how we hold up when it is gone.

Those we love – SHOW them every day. Those we can never bear to lose – make sure they KNOW it. Those who cause pain – FORGIVE even if you never forget. Those who “bandaid” our hearts – LOVE them.

Life is fleeting and in less than the time it takes the wind to whistle through the leaves of a tree, faster than you could even see light flash through time, YOUR timeline can change in ways you might never have imagined. So make sure you make the MOST of the time you have with the ones you have, before they are taken from you, as leaves torn from a tree in a tornado.

© Rosie Chee

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

BE A VOICE

There are many voices in the world, but for very voice there is an echo. There are followers, people who simply repeat the words of someone else because they have nothing original of their own to say. DON’T be one of those people. Be one of the VOICES. Stand up for what you believe in. Stand alone if you have to against the crowd of the “norm”. Stand by your word and do not let the naysayers and disbelievers sway you from your conviction.

Being a voice can often be a lonely path. You are the one CREATING the path. You are the one braving the first steps into the unknown. You are the one risking your life going over the edge of the cliff first. You are the one who is assaulted first. ACCEPT it. EMBRACE it. Even though it might be daunting, there is SATISFACTION in walking in a different direction than the crowd. CHANGE is created when an individual breaks away from what is known and sets off in another pursuit.

The greatest pioneers of this world were once voices that spoke out against what was. They were voices that talked of dreams and visions and the “impossible”. They dared believe in something other than what they were told to believe in. They traversed UNexplored paths and discovered amazing destinations. They “recreated” the world and changed lives in ways that could not be imagined in their time, but that we could not imagine being withOUT in the now.

Do not be afraid to let the world hear YOUR voice. Do not be afraid to dance to your OWN song. Do not be afraid to walk AWAY from the crowd and find your own path. Do not be afraid to be an INDIVIDUAL. You never know the DIFFERENCE you might make, the ripples of effect of change that your words and actions could bring. LISTEN to the inner voice in your soul and let it OUT into the world, so that it hears too. BE the voice that shouts in the mountains, not the echo reverberating back at you. BE the change!

© Rosie Chee

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

SAY "YES" TO YOU

You have had something on your heart for a long time now. Something that should been done when you FIRST recognized it, but never was because you were too busy taking care of everyone else and their needs, ignoring your own in a misplaced sense of loyalty. But now that something is of PARAMOUNT importance to do, for such a deep-seated desire does not get laid on one’s heart for no reason, and it’s time to start thinking about your OWN health and happiness, to begin doing what will be BEST for you.

First, you must learn to be SELFISH. Hard for those who always put others before themselves, who have taken care of everyone else all their life and neglected themselves until they could no longer ignore the warning signals inside. Being selfish we all need to be sometimes, for if we do not take care of ourselves we are NOT going to be in any position to be of service to others. We also need to realize that when WE are healthy and happy, then we are better equipped to create POSITIVE impact in others’ lives.

You are at the point where you can no longer ignore that desire, when it MUST be taken care of before all else, not just because it should have been done, but because if it is NOT, you will never be able to live your life as completely as you were meant to. You WANT to become ALL you have the potential and power to be, and to do that this must be DONE. You have made the decision and now it is time to ACT on it, creating the reality that you have sought in your heart for a long time.

Realize that saying “no” to everyone else and their needs for a time is NOT bad, for not only must they learn to start taking care of themselves and not rely on draining you of everything you have and are to keep them satisfied, but you need to start thinking of YOU and YOUR best interests. Life changes and we change with it and that change should constantly be making us into something BETTER than we are. To become better, you have to know what you NEED to do to reach that next level and just DO it, no matter the cost.

There is ALWAYS going to be a cost to doing what must be done, but that is nothing compared to what will be if you do NOT move. Your life is your own, so start allowing it to be. Start allowing yourself to LIVE. Start allowing that glimpse of happiness to become a ray of hope that spreads throughout your being, into all corners of your soul and life. Start allowing that inner voice to say “YES” to yourself, accepting that you must in order for your life to truly move FORWARD.

© Rosie Chee

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

BRAVER, STRONGER, SMARTER

All of us have a GREAT capacity for courage and strength and intelligence. We might not think it, but we DO.

When you are going through immense change and everything in your life is topsy-turvy, upside down and back-to-front, and you keep GOING, head down, surging FORWARD through it all that is COURAGE. When your life changes so dramatically that tragedy besets you at almost every turn and you don’t know when the flames of destruction and pain will end, but you hold your head high and continue walking THROUGH the fire that is STRENGTH. When you have no idea what direction your life is headed but, coupled with what you know and common-sense, trust your instinct to lead you true that is INTELLIGENCE.

There is MORE within us than we could ever have possibly imagined. Some of us have just not yet had the life experience that causes us to draw deep within us to what we might have thought we never had. Those of us that have, whilst know the pain and suffering and heartache of such times, understand the NEED for them, their NECESSITY for personal GROWTH, and in TRULY knowing the desires hidden deep inside our SOUL.

When you see and ACCEPT those desires, you are called upon yet again to use that courage to step out AFTER your dreams, your strength to withstand any OBSTACLES that might want to hold you back, and the intelligence to know what to do when, so that you can ACHIEVE your dreams and see them made REALITY. Life is a winding path and you never know which way it can turn, so we do the BEST with what we have as we strive to become the BEST that we can possibly BE.

© Rosie Chee

2013 | Day 6: SMALL CHANGES. BIG DIFFERENCE.

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

SMALL CHANGES. BIG DIFFERENCE.

The SMALLEST change can make ALL the difference in the world. Changing only ONE thing in your life can change EVERYTHING. One tiny ADJUSTMENT to your ATTITUDE or THINKING can turn around the way you FEEL and ACT. ONE little thing can be the BIGGEST thing there is.

You think from your HEART. You act off what you THINK. Your life is determined by your ACTIONS.

If you want to see a CHANGE in your life, change ONE thing. If you change anything, change your HEART. What goes in must come OUT. What you ABSORB is ultimately REFLECTED back out into the universe for OTHERS to absorb. What you send out can be the cause of or create a change for or in someone ELSE.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. But first you must make a difference in your OWN life. You must take CONTROL of your OWN heart. You must determine who you want to BE and what you want to GIVE life. When you know and are on your personal path of evolution THEN you can be good FOR others.

© 2013 Rosie Chee

2012 | Day 343: SECOND CHANCE

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

SECOND CHANCE

Your life is changing in ways you never thought it would. You are in a place you never thought you would ever be. You have found a faith that you never thought you would need or care for. YOU are changing more than you ever thought possible.

Do NOT be afraid of the change. Everything you have been through was for a REASON. Every heartache and tear wrenched from your soul, every moment of pain and frustration and confusion, every feeling of hopelessness and despair, was all for a reason. Out of the greatest pain [often] comes the greatest GROWTH. Out of the greatest pain [often] rises the GREATEST and most BEAUTIFUL of souls.

You have been through that pain. You know what went wrong, what lessons you had to learn, even if the way you had to learn them was so drastic that you felt like your soul would be torn asunder for all time. Know that from the pain will come STRENGTH greater than you ever thought you could have, regardless of you knowing that your soul already has strength of its own.

Hold ONTO the faith that you have found. It will pull you through even the darkest of times. Never be ashamed to cry out to Him, to plea from the depths of your soul for help, on your knees in the most desperate of times, for He ALWAYS listens and He always ANSWERS, even if the answer is not the one that you seek. Know that the answer He gives is what you NEED, because He knows even before you do what your SOUL needs to survive, what your heart needs to be ALIVE, what your mind needs to be ENCOURAGED.

A door in your life may have closed, but there HAS been opened a window. It might be small, seem impossible for you to see yourself fitting through it at the moment, but know and accept that NOTHING is IMpossible with God on your side. NOTHING your heart dreams or aspires is out of your reach if you desire it with EVERYthing that you are, and with such consuming passion and commitment to making it happen, you CAN.

Have FAITH and BELIEF in YOURSELF, that you are stronger than you think and have far MORE within you than you might ever have known! YOU have the POWER to CHANGE your life! You have been given a SECOND chance! Make the MOST of it and become EVERYTHING He always intended you to be!

© 2012 Rosie Chee

2012 | Day 200: Broken Blade Sharpening

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

Pursuit of Happiness

Happiness can be something that eludes us - until we realize that there is NO destination to being happy, that everything we have to “be” happy is WITHIN us, if we but ALLOW it to be. The simple thought of someone special, a memory, a smile, something that makes us laugh - all of those things release the happy inside, allow us to let down the walls that we build around ourselves for the briefest of moments.

Happiness is a CHOICE. Life can be falling apart around you, the worst possible situation you can think of you find yourself in, and you can STILL find the happiness lurking in the shadows - it IS there, even if it IS hiding in the depths of your soul, in a place you would never have imagined it to be.

EVERY day we make the choice - conscious or not - on whether or not we will be happy. Happiness is not just a choice, but a state of MIND, and even if our heart is breaking, our soul is distressed, we can still make the choice to look for the positive in the negative, at what IS going right in our world, and be thankful that we are still alive to appreciate the beauty that we have in our lives.

Quote for Reflection: 

TRAINING

Day OFF

Yes, I know that I had Monday off, but I am also going to allow today to be off, as it was scheduled. Really has been THREE days "off" this week (since yesterday was not much and at the very start of the day), and I think my body has NEEDED it - THIS is the "Week Off" that is has been "begging" for over the last couple of weeks. So now that is has had it, it's time to return to being ME!

OTHER NOTES

Sleep: Woke after ~9 hours and then went back to sleep for ~3 more, making an excessive ~12 hours of sleep.

Mood: Interesting.

Energy: Fatigued.

Stress: HIGH.

Body Composition: 9.6% bodyfat at 120.8 pounds - lost 0.4% bodyfat over the last week, which is interesting given that I [really] only did four days of training (maybe the time off helped some, given that my body hasn't had a break in 28 weeks and even last week, which was deemed an "easy" week still was reasonably active) and my eating was only good for a single day this week. That said, the second half of the week I started back on Erase, Alpha-T2, and Shred Matrix, and yes, whilst supplements are not to be predominantly relied on, just indicates a little how much difference these make to me personally (EVERYTHING should ALWAYS be taken on a case-by-case basis, especially since everyone is different - this is just an example of my body chemistry and history). I am so uncomfortable in my own skin, little but disgust for what I see and feel - the only GOOD thing about it right now is that my delts and arms are symmetrical re girths, the biggest that they have ever been, with the most muscle mass that they have ever had. I HAVE to lean and "slender" back down to what IS comfortable re body composition and size - keeping my delts and arms as big as possible (they're the ONLY areas of my body I want and do not mind muscle growth).

Overall Sense of Feeling: Whether it has "looked" like it or not, I've slowly been destroying myself with a lot of things over the last ~8 weeks and it's time to STOP - with my schedule so full the next few months, more destruction is NOT conducive, desired, or allowed. Training is going to go back to being as intense and hard as I can possibly make it - likely to change some things though, since my shoulders are really causing major issues right now. Eating is going to become CLEAN and "good" - the two times in the last 18 months when I have NOT followed my 16-hour fast/8-hour feeding window I have done a lot of damage to my body, and all it has done is solidify to me that this is the best nutritional protocol for my body re meal timing (IN that 8-hour feeding window I've never had an issue eating what I want and it not affecting my body composition too much, but eating ALL the time, even if it is a similar caloric intake has done some SERIOUS damage). The onus is all on ME and I accept full responsibility for the damage I've done - it's time for ACTION and coming out of the darkness with a vengeance, to use what I've learnt and discovered to give myself the opportunity to grow even more and become BETTER OVERALL.

Other Notes: I am going to continue posting my Motivationals daily, but updates are likely to become weekly reports re progress and everything else henceforth.

2012 | Day 193: Choices & Changes

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

Who I Am Today

Do we really know a person? Can we ever really know OURSELVES? For we are ever changing, the events and circumstances we find ourselves in, the struggles we battle through, the mountains we climb to the top, the people we find ourselves in the company of, creating an environment for change.

And yet, even as we change, no matter how subtly, we never lose the essence of ourselves, of what makes us truly unique and US. We evolve, taking some of the old into the new, discarding what we do not need and embracing that which can only be beneficial to our well-being, seeking to heal the wounds of yesterday with the hope of tomorrow and the joy of the present.

Everything we have ever experienced is a part of who we are. Every choice we have ever made has led us to this place. Everything we have ever held inside is a part of us. As humans we are multi-faceted, beautiful in our complexity, wondrous in our individuality. Just because it is not seen does not mean that it is not THERE.

I am BETTER than I was yesterday. I have learnt from my yesterdays and are growing into my tomorrows as I experience my present. I am BECOMING. A never-ending process of being tempered by the fires of life, so that at the end of everything I can look back and see how FAR I have come, every choice, every decision, having moulded this rough stone into a sparkling jewel, so translucent that light can shine through it, the light within reaching out into the darkness to touch and shine through the hearts of other jewels that have been just as tempered into beauty.

Quote for Reflection:

TRAINING

Saturday

Run 3 miles

Stretch 20 min

Sunday

Day OFF

Sleep: All over the place.

Energy: Was still exhausted when went to work yesterday, but "woke up" during my shift, and afterwards, not going to bed until close to 0500 this morning, waking on and off, having no energy on "final" waking.

Joints: Left wrist was feeling it yesterday.

Quality of Training: 3-mile run yesterday was ok, but feeling it in my lower legs - definitely got to lose all the additional body mass.

Body Composition: Now at 10% bodyfat - the second time I have been above 9.5% bodyfat in 1.5-2 years, so not pleased, very ashamed of and disappointed in myself. Feeling it and seeing it. Anything over ~8.3% bodyfat and my body doesn't feel like my own, so have to get it back down to STAY down ASAP. Getting back into a routine will be a start.

OTHER NOTES

Muscle-Base

Another of my very first articles has now been published on Muscle-Base - read it here.

2012 | Day 187: I know that this road is my destiny...

MOTIVATIONAL OF THE DAY

Choices, Chances, Changes

We all have choices. We all have chances. We all don’t have to change.

We all have to decide to make a choice to take a chance if we want to change.

If you are not happy with where you currently are in life, then step back and reassess your situation. See where you are and where you WANT to be. Consider all the possibilities. Weigh in all the choices. Lay them all out before you and make a DECISION.

Your decision could be to stay where you are, because your comfort zone is safer than risking the unknown. Your decision might be to take that chance and risk everything you know for what you don’t, having faith and believing that putting yourself out there is the FIRST step to achieving your dreams.

Your decision to step OUTside your comfort zone is going to lead to CHANGE. Change is GOOD. Change means FORWARD momentum. It implies PROGRESS. Taking that first step into the unknown could forever change your life as you know it, but you will never know unless you TAKE it.

If you want your life to CHANGE, then you WILL make the CHOICE to CHANCE the roll of the life’s dice and GO FOR IT!

Quote for Reflection:

TRAINING

HIIT Run:
a. 5 min jogging
b. 28 x 20 sec sprint/10 sec easy
c. 5 min jogging

Stretch 20 min

Shoulders (30 sec recovery between supersets):
SuperSet A -
1. Behind-the-neck BB Military Press 4 x 6
2. Skip 4 x 100 revolutions
SuperSet B -
3. Rear Flyes 2 x 12
4. Skip 2 x 100 revolutions
SuperSet C -
5. BB Military Press 4 x 6
6. Skip 4 x 100 revolutions
SuperSet D -
7. DB Arnold Press 2 x 12
8. Skip 2 x 100 revolutions
SuperSet E -
9. Single-Arm DB Lateral Raises 4 x 10 per side
10. Skip 4 x 100 revolutions
SuperSet F -
11. DB Lateral Raises 2 x 12
12. Skip 2 x 100 revolutions

Post-Weights Cardio:
Recline Bike 20 min @ 103-107 rpm

OTHER NOTES

Sleep: Up two hours later than I wanted to be, but I'll get there by the end of the week.

Energy: Started fading ~1500. It was a LONG day and passed out on the couch again last night.

Quality of Training: Made it a shorter session in the morning, planning on doing Hamstrings with some cardio in the evening after work, but that didn't happen due to being so exhausted (to be done on Tuesday instead). The rest of the session went ok, pushing through the pain in my shoulders and wrists (both of which are playing up now).