Fit For Life: Stay Strong, Focused on Being Better at Everything

Sunday, April 22, 2018
Matt Espeut, GoLocalWorcester Health +Lifestyle Contributor

Throughout the week I find certain life experiences and takeaways to write about, because chances are, a lot of what I see, and experience happens to everyone that is reading this, so you can relate.

Just heard some bad news that a former coworker passed away this week.

I wouldn’t consider him a true friend, but I knew him and liked him enough that I was sad to hear of his passing. It’s always sad to me when someone younger passes unexpectedly, and tragically. I know first-hand what the family is going through, so I know that a lot of people he left behind are in a bad way right now.

Also got news that another person I know needs radiation treatments due to a health issue. The doctors keep giving different scenarios, so this person is lost and doesn’t know what direction to take, therefore is going for the option with the lowest risk and side effects

Sitting at my sales training workshop and something bad happened to someone attending the class. She jumped up, answered her phone then went into panic mode and stormed out of the room crying on the phone. “Oh my god, is he gone” was the last thing we heard before she grabbed her things and abruptly took off. The rest of the class was left speechless for a bit before we were able to resume training.

Now I write these articles to inspire people, not to bring the mood down while you are reading them, but I need to give you my takeaways, and what I am feeling after hearing about other people’s tragedies.

First, life is like building a sand castle.

It can take you hours to build, then one wave can wash it away.

The question is, how are you going to deal with it?

You can have a tantrum and kick and scream, or you can move further away from the water and build a new one.

We work hard to make slow incremental changes in our lives, but bad things can happen in a second.

Think about that.

We work hard 40+ hours a week for years and one wrong move or investment can make it all come crashing down and we can lose everything. Even if you are a cautious investor, bad things can happen quickly.

The same goes for our health. We work hard daily to eat correctly, to get fit, but you can diminish years of hard work by being lazy and eating poorly for just a few months.

So, my biggest takeaway from all this is that we can only control certain elements of what happens to us in life, and the rest we need to roll with the punches and be prepared to deal when bad things happen.

A quote I heard years ago still holds true. “Life isn’t what it’s supposed to be, it is what it is. How we handle it is what makes the difference”.

It’s not a matter of if we will face adversity and problems in life, but when, and how well equipped we are to handle it.

Unexpected things can happen but for the most part, we can control our own destiny and have the ability to increase our chances for success.

We can be proactive by exercising and living a healthy lifestyle. For the most part, we are in control of our health. We are in control of what we eat, and we decide if we will exercise to make ourselves stronger. We decide to exercise discipline on a daily basis and take care of ourselves in a positive way.

We also have control of who we associate with and how we conduct our lifestyles. We have the choice to hang around positive people and engage in things that will move us forward in life. Or we have the choice to surround ourselves with negative cynical people and live an abusive lifestyle.

In conclusion, my philosophy is this: Prioritize and spend your energy on things that matter, and things you CAN control, and don’t spend time worrying about things you can’t. Another quote is “90% of what we worry about never happens, and the other 10% we can’t do anything about, so why worry?

Live your life like there’s no tomorrow.

Spend it doing the things you like to do and be around the people that bring out your best and make you happy.

Take care of yourself to the best of your ability and do everything in your power to be strong mentally, and physically fit.

Always remember that your life can change in a second, and things can go downhill fast, so set yourself up to handle all adversity that comes your way, and don’t waste energy worrying about all the bad things that “could” happen.

Stay strong and stay focused on being better at everything you do!

Committed to your success

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one.