Motivation: Mexico

Remember when that lady told us in her Boston accent to use plenty of sunscreen, or the time the three Mexican kids cornered Eric in a pool and he didn't know how to tell them in Spanish: "Excuse me, but you're in my personal space." Remember zip lining, parasailing, swimming up to the bar, telling venders "I'll take that one," and eating at the delicious Pipi's? Yes friends, I'm talking about Puerto Vallarta. Whether it seems like that happened yesterday or was a lifetime away, it's going to happen in nine months. Yes you heard me. Nine. So that means I've got to get myself in gear for the beach. I've got to build up my energy to suck every last ounce of enjoyment out of Mexico as possible before another 2-year separation. And last time I checked, unlike Matilda I AM in a family. We're ALL going to Mexico.

This blog is a prep for Mexico 2014 and beyond. Every day from here to there matters because it's the little things that make the big things. Just look at your body calorie intake. Each hour of each day for the next nine months will determine how much you'll be able to enjoy running along the beach, dominating in ultimate frisbee, flying up in a parachute, swimming through the ocean waves, and looking good in that two piece. I'm talking to you, Michael.

Because Mexico is the product of the next nine months, I need to take each month at a time, by each week, each day. What I do/don't do and eat/not eat will produce the days, weeks, and months until Mexico happens.

My goals: increase energy, increase endorphins, build muscle, lose fat.

How to get there: manage my life by focusing on what I eat, find resources to eat healthy, receive encouragement and motivation from others, help motivate and encourage others.

So, for my very first post, I would encourage everyone to think about balance. What is balance? We sometimes balance things like a scale, or we have balance like a well-designed room. It's something we hear a lot about, but it's often difficult to understand how it's used or how we can actually see it and apply it in our lives. I've been learning a lot about balance since living in Memphis and being a grad student. If my life is off-balance, I definitely feel it. It effects everything, like a broken wing crashes an entire plane. My knee-jerk reaction to finding balance is taking away the excess that makes it hard to balance everything. By getting rid of things in our lives, that helps ease our daily balancing act, right? Not necessarily. Imagine walking a tight rope. Holding a pole helps you walk the line. If you were to take away part of the pole, it would make it harder to keep balance. My calling as Young Men's President is something I'm going to add to all the other things I'm juggling in my life. But it's actually going to help me (as it already has) keep things balanced. Since getting my calling, I've gone back to the gym. I'm doing some great summer reading. I'm preparing for school and going to present at two conferences this fall. My calling helps me because it gets my mind off of the consuming presence of school. The gym helps me clear my mind from my worries of my calling. Socializing with friends, going to the temple, vegging in front of the TV, and studying all help me give balance to my life so I'm not idly trying to get the one thing on my list I've been meaning to do. I've experienced drowning in a pool of time. For some reason, when I have less, I get nothing done. Maybe it's just the way I am, but the principle of balance can be applied to everyone.

I encourage you to think about what balance means for you, how you maintain balance in your life, and how eating healthy and exercising play into your daily balancing act.