I’m blowing the (virtual) dust off the bog today after a summer of no writing.
Well, that’s not entirely true.
I wrote grocery lists, snarky texts to blow off steam after surviving pre-teen drama storms, and SOS texts to my husband when those storms reached critical mass.
That is not the kind of writing that fills my soul with joy.
In the midst of surviving the summer, I learned something the hard way.
After creating an entire video series on the 5 areas that are critical for taking care of ourselves, this summer I neglected 99% of these areas.
(What kind of person creates an entire video series and then doesn’t follow her own advice? Geez.)
This neglect impacted every part of my life. Not all at once, of course. But as the weeks went by, I grew more agitated, more reactive. I didn’t like being around myself. I wasn’t nice to myself either.
This experience makes me even more convinced that these 5 areas really are CRITICAL for living life with courage, strength, and resolve. Just ask the people who had to live with me while I spiraled into my pit.
Today I am so excited to share the final video in the series, the wrap-up, with a few thoughts about badass-ness and fighting for hope. I encourage you to go back and watch the entire series. The videos aren’t long, because getting back to badass isn’t complicated, it just takes focus.
I created this video series because I firmly believe that the way we care for ourselves impacts the way we fight for hope. When I am feeling badass, when I am living life with courage, strength, and resolve, I make brave decisions, I speak up for what is right, I respond to situations instead of reacting in anger and panic. It gives me strength as I fight for hope.
We’ve made it to the fifth (and final) area of our video series: Back to Badass: Living Life with Courage, Strength, and Resolve.
This area is Stepping Toward our Dreams. The action point for this area sounds pretty easy, Do one thing each day to step toward our dreams, but you and I both know that pursuing dreams involves overcoming fears, facing our insecurities, and our feelings of worth.
Not so easy.
We need courage, strength, and resolve to even start pursuing our dreams and these qualities actually increase as we pursue our dreams. It’s a wonderful cycle that helps us push past our comfort zones. You know, that place where things feel safe and comfortable and where you hear the whisper “that’s not for you. that’s for other people.”
I’m not against safe and comfortable by any means, but I’ve discovered that if I’m staying safe and comfortable out of fear… then it’s not a healthy place to be.
“If your dream doesn’t make you want to throw up, it just isn’t big enough.” When it comes to pursuing dreams nausea can be a good thing, especially when it’s accompanied by that “I was made for this!” feeling.
I’d love to know your thoughts on these quotes:
If your dream doesn’t make you want to throw up, it’s just not big enough.
It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you aren’t.
As I pursue my dreams, I ‘ve discovered that I am my own roadblock 90% of the time. I think of all the reasons I can’t do something instead of asking “What would it take for this to happen?”
I am more likely to ask this when I am living with courage, strength, and resolve.
What about you? What would it take to step toward your dreams?
Resources:
Podcasts: Chalene Johnson, Lewis Howes, Michael Hyatt
Hopewriters – The community at hopewriters.com has changed my writing and inspired me to continuously step out of my comfort zone. Being a part of this community has helped me move forward in the writing side of writing and in the sometimes-scary tech side of writing. The low monthly fee is the best investment I’ve made toward my writing dreams. (The link on the sidebar of my blog is an affiliate link.)
Soul Care gets to the heart of who we are and what we believe. And it’s important, because we aren’t just bodies that need rest and food. We are whole people, made up of mind, body, and soul, and each part of us needs attention.
Soul Care is connected to our badass because what we believe guides the way we live. Without taking care of our souls, our badass becomes a blustery take-it-or-leave-it, I’m-on-my-own attitude. But it’s really hard to sustain courage, strength and resolve based on our own bluster.
When life takes the wind out of my sails and I’m left thinking Wait, what just happened here? the state of my soul guides my actions.
This subject takes some thinking over, especially if we aren’t used to paying attention to the care of our soul. To help with this, I’ve included the transcript of the video below the video.
I would love your feedback on this section of Back to Badass: Living Life with Courage, Strength, and Resolve.
In this series we’ve talked about taking care of our body through getting enough sleep, eating healthy, and exercise. The fourth area of getting back to badass focuses on taking care of our soul.
I have found in my journey that when I spend time learning about God and about His love for me, it helps me feel balanced, it fuels my fight for hope, and it gives me a foundation for my badass.
Fighting for hope is a trait we share across the globe and have shared through the centuries. No matter how dark our world gets people cling to hope.
I believe that we are drawn to hope, our hearts crave hope, because we were created by the God of hope. He made us for hope, He gave us the ability to hope, and He is the source of lasting hope. And lasting hope is what we need as we push against the darkness in our lives. Lasting hope is bigger than we are because it is grounded in God’s nature and character.
If He created us for hope, it makes sense to get to know Him and find out more about the hope He can give.
How does this connect with getting back to badass? Remember our definition: Badass is a feeling of courage, strength, and resolve. Soul care gives us a foundation for that feeling. Feelings change so easily and our circumstances can change in a heartbeat. And that makes it difficult to hold on to that feeling of courage, strength, and resolve. But the more I learn about God and His love for me – His love that never changes – it gives me steady footing.
If lasting hope is grounded in God’s nature and character, then we can experience this hope by getting to know Him. We come face to face with Him in His Word. Through the pages of the Bible we read what He says about who He is, who we are, and how much He wants to be in relationship with us.
In Soul care, two of the most important questions we can ask ourselves are:
How do I view God? and How do I believe God views me?
We live much of our live based on the answers to these questions.
For a large portion of my life I thought God was distant, disappointed in me, and loved me because He had to. I got the picture that Jesus was a reluctant Savior. As a result, I alternated between feeling like I could never measure up, so why try, and working hard doing good things to try to earn God’s love.
This yo-yo-ing back and forth was exhausting. I finally hit a point where I asked myself, Is what I believe about God accurate or am I just repeating what others have said through the years? So I started looking in the Bible for the words and phrases God uses to describe who He is, and the words and phrases He uses to describe what He thinks about me.
The Bible is more than a book. It is God’s words, saying this is Who I am, this is how much I love you, and this is what I’ve made you for.
And what I’ve found is that God loves me fiercely and wants His best for me. And, at the same time, sometimes His best comes through difficult times. But in those difficult times He is with me and He gives me the courage, strength, and resolve to keep going.
We tend to define God’s love based on our circumstances. If things are good, God must love me, if things are bad, He must be mad at me. But the difficult times are times when we can run toward God and toward His truth and find our courage, strength, and resolve in Him.
Badass rooted in God doesn’t waver with circumstance. Because He is steady, we can rest our feet firmly on Him. Because He is steady, we can believe beautiful truths like : I am loved because God loves me. I am not alone because God is with me. I have worth because God made me for purpose.
Finding my worth in Him gives me courage to do big, scary things. And when darkness does close in, having my hope in God gives me the resolve to keep on going.
Soul care helps us walk in courage, strength, and resolve in spite of our circumstances and in spite of how we might feel.
The Action Point for today is to answer those two important questions:
How do you view God and How you do believe He views you?
The answers to those questions really do shape our lives.
I would love to know your thoughts on soul care. Do you have books or resources that help you in this area?
Today’s video covers the third of the five areas that are critical for getting back to badass. I’m talking about exercise and the importance of building our strength – inside and out.
I believe success in this area doesn’t begin with having a yoga mat, or the right set of weights, or even the most supportive sports bra.
It begins with words.
In the video on eating healthy, I talked about the lies I believe that sabotage my progress. When it comes to exercise, I can sabotage myself by the way I talk to myself. Words.
If we were cheering a friend up THE HILL from the video, what type of words would we use? Encouraging? Judgmental? I suspect we are more encouraging to others than we are to ourselves.
Exercise builds muscle and tenacity. As we exercise we grow strong inside and out. The words we feed our inner muscles are the equivalent to the protein shakes we drink after a workout.
Words are powerful, especially the ones we speak to ourselves.
Action points:
Look at your options for exercise. It can be as basic as taking a walk, or an involved as a Zumba class. Find something you are interested in or something that challenges you.
Make it fun. If it’s drudgery, you won’t want to do it. I enjoy the resources offered by Beachbody.com. Beachbody on Demand gives me access to workout programs on Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Levels. I love this because of the variety and because I can work out in my own home.
Focus on getting stronger and feeling your best. I love the way I feel after a workout. I try not to focus on weight loss, because I get discouraged when the numbers on the scale go up and down and up and…. When I focus on getting stronger, I am able to track my progress and that encourages me to keep on going!
Exercise keeps me off the sidelines in my own life. I want to LIVE my life, not watch it as a spectator. Exercise helps me physically and mentally as I live life with courage, strength and resolve.
You are worth the time, energy, and effort it takes to do this, my friend.
I’d love to know what you plan to do to incorporate this step of getting back to badass into your life.
What words or phrases will you use to encourage yourself? If you need ideas, I have a Pintrest board that might help – Fitness Quotes to Get Me Moving. I’d love to add to it. Drop your favorite phrase in the comments below.
What will you do today to begin getting stronger? Taking a walk? Take a picture! Tackling a workout? Drink water and take an after workout picture! Be sure to use #bk2ba so we can keep up with each other.
Ok, it’s not quite that simple. But I do connect the dots in today’s video
Step Two of Back to Badass: Living Life with Courage, Strength, and Resolve
This video in the Back to Badass series centers around Eating Healthy. This area can be an emotional minefield. My struggle with eating the right foods is rarely about the food. It’s about what I believe.
When it comes to eating healthy, or choosing to eat healthy, I don’t think the problem is a lack of information, it’s all about motivation.
It doesn’t take a professional to know that an apple has more nutritional value than a doughnut. I know the apple is the better choice, but I am more apt to choose the doughnut than the apple, because I believe it will make me feel better.
Having a plan for eating is important, Looking at the lies we believe about eating is also important. In this video I talk about the 2 lies that sabotage my goals of eating healthy. And you know what? They aren’t about food at all.
What do you believe that sabotages your eating goals? Those little whispers in the dark matter, because what we believe shapes the way we live.
In the first video of this series, I asked you to think about what would change in your life if you got back to badass. Now picture this with me. Think about the people in your life that you love. People who are weary, stretched thin, overwhelmed with life. What would it look like if they started living life with courage, strength, and resolve?
When I picture the people I love walking in strength, making courageous choices, instead of reacting in fear or shrugging their shoulders in defeat, I get pumped. It’s beautiful!
Their lives would change, the lives around them would be impacted, and on an on! Just think, what if the media that fills our lives was based on courage, strength and resolve instead of fear?
Call me a dreamer, but I think it could happen.
So reach for that apple and let’s change the world!
Resources:
The nutritionist I mention in this video is Ginny Reddick. It was so helpful to have her expertise and accountability for three months. I would definitely recommend her! You can find out about her and sign up for her blog at http://www.virginiareddick.com
The app My Fitness Pal helps me keep track of what I’ve eaten. It also helps me balance my all-or-nothing thinking that sabotages my progress. It helps me remember that one unhealthy snack or meal doesn’t have to derail my entire day and gives me the tools to get back on track. I would highly recommend it!
“Hope is by far the most dangerous commitment we make in life.”
This quote by Dan Allender has shaped the direction of my blog and the direction of my life in recent years.
I’m not a person who runs toward danger. I’m the person that screams out loud at the suspenseful part of any movie. I’ve sent popcorn flying two rows down. (My sincerest apologies to the people sitting anywhere near me every time I see a movie in the theater.)
In life we have to choose between giving in to fear and fighting for hope. I’ve spent many years giving in to fear, allowing the darkness to tell me what to believe. But things have changed. These days, I’m choosing to fight.
Back in the fall I wrote Why Fight for Hope. I ended the post with this paragraph:
And the more I fight for hope, the more I suspect that there may be a badass deep down inside of me. One that doesn’t flip out at the first sign of danger, but one who owns her story with style.
My suspicions have been confirmed. The badass deep inside of me is starting to surface.
The badass I’m speaking of is not abrasive or offending. It is a feeling of courage, strength and resolve. That feeling grows the more I fight for hope, and though it is new on the surface, the seeds of badass have been there all along.
Getting back to badass is changing the way I fight for hope. Instead of being on the defense, clinging to hope, I find that now I run after hope, even when things look bleak. Instead of just surviving, I am more apt to reach out to others and encourage them in their fight for hope.
Getting reacquainted with my badass has been a journey worth sharing. To do this, I’ve created a video series called Back to Badass: Living Life with Courage, Strength, and Resolve.
Since I’ve never done anything like this before, I’d love your feedback in exchange for a sneak peek at the series. For the next 7 weeks, I’ll post a video from the series for you to comment on. These are the types of things I’m looking for:
What are 2 things you learned during this video? Am I communicating clearly? I’d love to hear your thoughts and impressions.
Would you be willing to help me sharpen my series?
I’m jumping right in with the teaser video, to give you an idea of what the series will entail.
Can you imagine what our homes and communities would look like if more people lived life with courage, strength, and resolve? I sincerely believe it would change the world.
I’m looking forward to sharing this project with you. If you know someone who would enjoy this series and would like these posts sent straight to their inbox, please encourage them to sign up for my blog in the sidebar at erinulerich.com.
I was doing just fine until I read The Healing Path by Dan B. Allender.
Wait…that’s not true. At all.
I was running from my story, really. And this book said things that made me turn around, face my story and own it. In the midst of facing my story, this quote spilled across the pages:
Hope is by far one of the most dangerous commitments we make in life.
I’d never thought of hope as being dangerous.
I’m not really a fan of danger. I can’t even stand the suspense of hide and seek.
This video describes my reaction to danger.
Not brave, not courageous, just a total flip-out. You can ask my children. They love re-enacting times when I’ve completely lost it. It’s not enough to tell the story, they want others to fully experience it. They are true Southern storytellers.
But this quote makes me rethink my aversion to danger. This quote makes me feel a bit wild and unpredictable as I push against the darkness in my life and yell (or sometimes whisper) “You will not win!”
Why is fighting for hope important? Why would anyone step willingly into danger’s path?
Because we have worth.
Right now, as I write this and as you read this, these words are true: We have worth. You have worth. I have worth.
We are more than our abilities. We are more than our struggles. Our worth does not come from our looks or financial status. Our worth is not determined by a lack of looks or financial status, either.
We have worth because we were created by God, who calls us worthy, who breathes life into every soul, who calls us beloved and precious. We are not a random bunch of cells that happened to group together and form a person. We are loved tenderly by God, who also says that we are worth fighting for.
We are worth the fight.
Because we weren’t meant to live life numb.
During difficult times, my first response is to build a cocoon around my heart to keep from feeling the hurt. We all have ways to cope with the fact that life is messy, confusing, and unpredictable. We distract ourselves in video games, TV series, and books to keep from dealing with life. We over-do good things: stay too busy, eat and drink too much, or shop too much. We even turn to harmful things like drugs, porn, gambling, cutting, or purging to keep us preoccupied and numb. The list goes on and on and the end result is the same.
We are miserable because we weren’t made to live like this.
We were made to feel. We were made to fight for things that matter. We were made to live in this broken world, to walk through the difficult times without being hardened by them. It is through the battle that we develop perseverance, courage, and compassion.
We were made for hope.
Because no one else can fight in our shoes.
We live in a broken world with hopelessness crowding in at every turn. Our news feeds are filled with tragedy and sorrow. Despair is a normal response to what is going on around us, but I believe people are looking for a different response. When others see us facing the darkness in our lives and yelling (or even whispering) “You. Will. Not. Win.” they see that despair is not the only response.
I am convinced that God places us strategically in families, in friendships, in relationships, in communities. And these spaces need Hope Warriors. I look at my own marriage and our struggles, my kids and the things they face, and I know that God has placed me right here to fight for hope. The same is true for you, my friend.
Why fight for hope? Because the last chapter has not been written. As dark as things seem, God can and will work in the situations you and I are facing right now. And when we choose to fight for hope, we are participating in the bigger story He is writing in this day and time.
Fighting for hope is dangerous. It’s also contagious. Our lives, our stories – even the chapters we don’t like – impact those around us.
And the more I fight for hope, the more I suspect that there may be a badass deep down inside of me. One that doesn’t flip out at the first sign of danger, but one who owns her story with style.
