“What Would You Attempt To Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail…”

“Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it? Or just let it slip? “

These words from the Eminem song, Lose Yourself, are what got me through the year 2009 when I decided to take a leap of faith and do something I never thought I could do. I hart fitness and love being active, yet the words triathlon and Melanie Elkin were definitely not in the same sentence at that time in my life. I remember sitting down with my friend Jesse, a colleague of mine at the time, to discuss my fitness goals like it was yesterday. He asked me to write down three things I wanted to achieve in relationship to my fitness goals for the next 6-12 months. I stared blankly at the paper, I knew deep down in my heart I wanted to do a triathlon, yet as I went to write this goal down all I could get out on paper were three goals that had nothing to do with competing in a triathlon. I handed the paper back to Jesse and he smiled. The next words he spoke are what woke me up to the fact that I was suppressing something that I already had within me. He said Mel, “cut the BS (in a friend way of course), I will stay here all night with you… don’t think, write from your heart.” At that moment I put the pencil to the paper and as tears streamed down my face I wrote …”I will complete the Santa Barbara Triathlon on August 23, 2009.”

From that night forward I trained, I trained, and I trained. Let me tell you it wasn’t easy. Sometimes I would force myself out of bed, and at moments when I wanted to throw in the towel and give up, the encouragement of Jesse and something inside me kept going. Throughout the summer I continued to train with Jesse and two women, Bonnie and Tyra, who will always have a special place in my heart. I can distinctly remember one day during our 8 month training regiment. It was our friend Tyra’s birthday, and for her birthday she wanted to do the tri course. None of us had a wetsuit and it was the crack of dawn. I remember this distinct look of fear and excitement on all of our faces as we stared out at the icy blue ocean. It was at that very moment that we looked at fear straight in the face and dove in…

I was cold, sooooo cold, I couldn’t even get warm during my bike ride after the swim, but this is what set it off for me, this knowing that anything is possible if you put your mind and heart into it. On August 23rd when I crossed that finish line my life completely changed. The triathlon ended up representing something much bigger for me than the actual act of completing the race. That is the cool thing about life, we never know where the journey may take us. There are twists, turns and bumps along the way but in the end the adversity we all go through is SOOOOOO Worth it.

I share this story with you to inspire your “Unrealistic” Fitness Goal to come out and play. What would you truly attempt to do if you knew failure was not an option. When you take this leap of faith you may fall down half a dozen times, which let me tell you when you are on the heroes journey WILL happen. Yet when you fall down you can ALWAYS, get back up, and it is in the getting back up that something magical happens. YOU end up making a small shift inside yourself and you achieve the very thing you were scared to do in the first place.

To LIVING OUR LIVES TO THE FULLEST and Rocking Our Goals One Step At A Time.

Lots of Love,

Melanie

I follow up this Blog Post with an idea of the “first step” to take if you are unsure where to start.