My 20 Year High School Reunion is this coming weekend and it
brought me back to my 10 year reunion.
Well, not really my 10 year reunion, per se, I didn’t attend, but back
to my life 10 years ago. Life has
changed dramatically over that time!
10 years ago, Andrea and I were on one of our patented
“breaks”; I was a mess physically; I was a mess financially; I was about to
graduate with my MBA and the job market had turned from great to awful in the 2
years I was in school; and I was in those “tweener” years, as I like to call
them, in which I was no longer a college student but I wasn’t a working
adult. I felt like I was in “The Waiting
Place” Dr. Seuss made popular in his book “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” No truer words have ever been written than
those written in this book! I read it to
my children, not only because I want them to learn the lessons contained within
its pages, but because I, myself, need to be reminded of them every so often.
Today, as I sit and write this post, Andrea and I are
married with two amazing boys; we are financially healthy; we are physically
healthy; and we are incredibly goal oriented.
How did I get here? What
changed?
It all started with a conversation I had with my cousin
Kevin. To sum up a 2 hour
deep conversation, he told me that I could be whatever I wanted but that I had
to go and make it happen; he told me that I had to surround myself with people
who inspired me; he told me that I was a good person but that I had to find
myself again; and he told me that he would be there for me. This conversation had such a profound impact
on my life that I named my second child after him.
The weekend after that conversation, I applied for Business
School.
In between my first and second year of business school, I
saw a picture from a friend’s bachelor party and it was embarrassing! I was fat.
I was very fat! I hadn’t realized
I had gotten so big, so unhealthy! I
decided to go on a diet. I had lost
weight before but this was different. I
needed to lose a lot of weight. I read
about and started the Atkins diet. I
lost the weight, and lost it quickly. I realize now how unhealthy a diet I had
chosen but that’s another story. I was
feeling good but there were other aspects of my life I needed to improve.
The next obstacle, the pack a day cigarette habit I
developed in college. I had quit many
times before without success so I decided to make a change in how I quit. I used a medication to help with the cravings
but the big change to how I finally quit was to train for a marathon. Andrea and I quit smoking around the same
time and she suggested we train for a marathon.
How could I smoke while training for a marathon?!?! 8 months after quitting, I completed my first
marathon. To be honest, I’ve yet to complete
my second but I think it’s time to run one again. Unfortunately, Andrea’s bum knee kept her
from training for, and running in, the marathon.
After I quit smoking and decided to train for a marathon,
Andrea and I had conversation about getting serious. For years we had floated
in this thing we called a relationship, stuck in a break up get back together
cycle that we hadn’t broken. Not until
we decided to break that cycle and actually commit to each other did our
relationship take off. Shortly
thereafter, we got engaged!
After Andrea and I had gotten married, she kept insisting
that we needed to get out of credit card debt.
I knew she was right so I finally started my quest to find the perfect
book to guide us. As I mentioned in my “About
Me” on the left side of this page, I found “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave
Ramsey and found my passion!
I figured out that I am here today because I made the
decisions to not be fat anymore; to quit smoking; to commit to my wife; and to
get out of debt! I became accountable
for my actions. I owned my shit! No one was going to fix my life for me; not my
family, not my friends, nor the government.
I had to start making good decisions and be accountable for my actions! I
can’t remember where I first heard this but it fits, “Life isn’t complicated! It
may be hard but it’s not complicated!" Make good, thoughtful decisions, surround yourself with people who inspire you and more
often than not, you’ll be making good decisions! If continue to make good decisions , and
constantly improve, you’ll look back over
10 years and be amazed how far you’ve come.
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