I’m trying to do something here.
Something good.
Something inspiring.
Something epic.
Have you ever felt like you were doing something epic?
In a sort of roundabout way I lost my job during the quarantine...I’m a glass half full kind of girl so I started looking immediately for the silver lining. While I was looking I was doing… I was reaching out to others and trying to find ways to use my skills and modern technology (not exactly my skills) to help others. And at the same time I was adventuring- I was going out to the mountains alone to run races that were canceled, I was training and staying strong, I was living epic and feeling alive. I wanted a way to help others feel like this.
I came up with the idea for StrongEpicLife while running alone for a couple of days in the mountains. I wasn’t sure what StrongEpicLife would become, but I knew it was something I had to do. I needed to find a way to empower others the way I felt empowered… I had overcome so many fears to live my dreams and there had to be a way to share it and help others.
Initially I had no target audience. I just wanted to encourage and I knew what my vision looked like: training for strength, nourishment for health and recovery, yoga for mindfulness and eventually offering adventure retreats that included all of those things.
I started training others online and connecting with people near and far; and as the weeks went on and my clientele grew, I started hearing more and more from the women I was seeing on zoom day after day and week after week things like “I wish I had your passion”, “I wish I knew what my passion was”, “I wish I was braver”, “I wish I felt better about who I am”, “I wish I believed could do something amazing”...”I wish I felt like getting out of bed in the morning”... and then I read a post in a group on social media one day where a woman asked if she was the only one with a negative self image...over 500 women commented that she wasn’t alone.
This needs to change…
When I started running I was a single mother of 4 children in my mid 30’s. I was working full time and taking 20 credit hours a semester at a local college. I was at a breaking point. I was a smoker who prided herself on never exercising. And then one day I did exercise. I quit smoking and joined a gym and 3 months later I ran for the first time. 6 months later I ran my first marathon- after spending months getting up at 3:45am to run around the block for hours so I wouldn’t be far from home if anyone woke up and one of my teenage children needed to call me on my flip phone to come back.
And then I heard we could go further than a marathon and I wanted to be an ultra runner- I wanted to run 100 miles. And then life happened and I remarried in my 40’s and had 5 miscarriages and a divorce...but waiting for me after it all was running and exercise. I made the choice to do epic things after the few years of loss and grief I had experienced. At first I was scared. What if I die trying to run 100 miles? What if a bear gets me? What if I get lost? What if I fail? Well, I did fail. Quite a few times...and every time I failed I took what I learned and got back out there. Eventually I finished a 100 miler...and then a couple more...and then I started attempting longer distances and bigger challenges. I still fail quite a bit, but it doesn’t stop me from trying again, because the hours and days that I do spend out there are part of my epic journey even if I don’t make it to the finish line and no one can take away from me the hard work I did to get as far as I got.
So I figured it out and I have a plan. I want to help other women experience the feelings of empowerment that I have experienced by accomplishing things I never thought would be possible. I want to help other women get strong and healthy and move through their fear and live a strong epic life full of adventure. I want to help other women find their passion and purpose.
So I’m kind of building the plane as I’m flying it...figuring out how to make all of this happen. It starts with the first step- and that’s where I am today. I’m going to take a deep breath and click on “Publish” and make my website live. I’m going to post this to my new blog. I’m going to hope that you the reader are ready to be empowered...and I’m going to get this adventure started.
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