How to Thrive, Even When it Feels Like Your World is Crashing Down Around You

I was going through the notes on my phone the other day, and came across something I wanted to share on the podcast. I started relying heavily on my calendar, my phone's notepad and paper notes while I was going through chemo, and occasionally, I will run across a note I wrote to myself. For those of you who haven't experienced it, chemo brain is real. It’s like brain fog, except 100X worse—and can last months and years beyond treatment. It can affect your ability to organize thoughts and to remember things (like names of people you've known your entire life!). It's like constantly having that feeling where you walk into a room and can't remember what you came in for.

Back to the note I wrote to myself. It said...

“Everyone mentions that I have this amazing, strong attitude. And, maybe I do. But more than being strong, it’s that I decided that cancer is not going to steal a single day of my life.  I caught myself telling a friend that by the time this is over, cancer will have taken a year of my life. And I realized that cancer is still something I’m trying to get ‘through,’ I’m still focusing on what has been and what I want to be, rather than today.”

I read that the other day and thought, cancer or no cancer, how many people are walking around, complaining about something that has happened to them, or something that isn’t fair? How many people are living in the past, rather than living in the present? Life isn’t something to get over with and through. Each day brings new opportunities and challenges and reasons to celebrate. And even in the challenges, we can choose to see the difficult parts of life as experiences that help us grow and become stronger and to become the person we know we are meant to be.

Not every day is bad. And even in the worst of times, not every moment of every day is bad. Between the darkness, we find shadows. To have shadows, there must be light. Every day has moments with little shimmers of light. It’s up to us to find them.

In this episode, I share some of the tips I used to find the light in every day. Each of us will experience some big, bad, scary thing at some point. And, it's up to us to decide if we let that thing ruin us, or if we find a way to thrive.

I also talk about the Circle of Grief or the Ring Theory. It's a nice guideline to consider when interacting with someone who is facing illness, grief, abuse, and other BIG LIFE THINGS. You can hear more about it on the podcast, but the idea is that you share comfort with people closer than you are to the person at the center of the crisis, and you only "dump" or share negative thoughts or your own feelings on the topic to people who are further removed or equal in distance to the situation as you. Do you have any idea how many family fights this can eliminate?! Or how much better you will be at doing what you intend - to comfort - rather than saying something that might be misunderstood?

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Sound Cloud, Spotify and Google Play, or you can listen right here, in the player at the bottom of this page.

No matter what you are dealing with, the big or the small, to get where you want to go in life, you have to change your mentality. It is up to you. Make a choice each day to thrive in the face of adversity. You are not a victim of your circumstances. Things might happen to you, and those things might be big, huge, ugly things. But they only define you if you let them.

Our habits and behaviors become our identity. Who do you want to be? What do you want for your future? How do others who currently have what you want… behave? Study their habits. Tell yourself you can create your future.

We create our reality with our thoughts and dreams and optimism. And we have the life we believe we deserve. Believe that good things will happen for you. And develop habits that are consistent with high achievers.

**

If you want coaching and help taking control of your life, join me in my Champion's Club where I take the topics from the podcast and turn them into deeper learning experiences. In this program, you get: workouts, warm ups, cool downs, stretches, mindset lessons and more! You don't have to be an athlete to benefit from this program. We can all improve our thinking so we can get more out of life.

**

If you live in the Kansas City Area, be sure to check out TRX for Boobies on October 28^th at Core Strong Fitness. To register for TRX for Boobies, go to: http://www.corestrongkc.com/trxforboobies/

To nominate a breast cancer survivor or patient for a free training session or package, go to: https://www.crushingmygoals.com/p/TRXForBoobies

 **

About your Podcast Host:

Coach Kim explores topics that will help you power up your life so that you can design a life you love. If you are ready to think, feel, train and live like a champion, tune in for expert interviews and real talk that will give you the tools and courage you need to chase your dreams.

Coach Kim Peek is a fitness and real-food enthusiast who is also a theater-mom, dog-mom and breast cancer survivor. Kim has a number of coaching certifications including: ACE Certified Group Fitness Instructor, USA Track and Field Level 1 Coach, USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach and Healthy Running. She is certified to teach a variety of fitness formats, and is constantly studying movement, motivation and other wellness topics to unlock success secrets for her audience. Kim is also a Breast Cancer Exercise Specialist and a Functional Aging Specialist.

You can hang out with Coach Kim online at:

www.CrushingMyGoals.com

Facebook 

Instagram @PowerOfRun

And join the free STRENGTH CHALLENGE group at Power of Run. Click here.