Inspiration

Have you ever inspired somebody and not even known it? There you are going about your daily routine, trying to reach your goals, and trying to stay focused; meanwhile, someone's looking at you and what you've accomplished and deciding to take action.

That's what happened to me at my Weight Watchers meeting last night. During every meeting we do celebrations as a means of receiving positive feedback for our accomplishments, whether they be scale-related or not. Last night, during celebrations one of the other members said that she wanted to give a shoutout to me because I inspired her to start running. Prior to WW, I was not a runner at all, not even when I was younger. Back then it wasn't a matter of my being heavy (I was skinny until I was about 14), it was about me just not wanting to push myself to do it. During this past summer our WW group set individual 6 week goals and my goal was to be able to run for 15 minutes. In order to reach that goal I ran a little bit each week, increasing the amount of time until I got to 15 minutes. After I found that I could do that, I decided to push myself to run for 30 minutes. Once again, I just kept incrementally adding time until I got there. My final goal was to be able to run all the way around the lake near my apartment, which is 3.5 miles or so. A few weeks ago I was able to do it for the first time. I did it over Labor Day weekend. After that first day, I decided to do it again the next day to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Day 2 I was able to do it, so I decided to go for the hat trick and run around the lake 3 days in a row. On Day 3 I had to push myself a bit, but I still made it.

I used that story as a celebration in the meeting 2 weeks ago, and a girl in the meeting, Amy, decided that she'd give running a try. When she talked about it last night, she said that she was on a track and would run for 2 laps and walk for 1 lap. She did that 4 days in a row. She said the whole time she was doing it, she was thinking of me. That made me so happy because that was unexpected proof that I'm having a positive impact on someone else's life. I always say that when I die, I want to do so having made the world a better place for my being in it. Although things I do or achieve might not necessarily have a global impact, I'm glad that I can truly touch and inspire the individuals that come in contact with me. Not only does the fact that I inspired Amy to start running make me proud, but it also motivates me to keep reaching toward my goals.