Читать книгу Dai Manuel's Whole Life Fitness Manifesto - Dai Manuel - Страница 32

23

discover your personal why

Phase Two Of Finding My Why

In the years that followed, everything seemed to go in the right direction. In 2001, I met my life partner, Christie, and we had two wonderful daughters. I achieved success in my business life as Chief Operating Officer and founding partner of Fitness Town, a chain of fitness equipment stores. I also became a Level 1 Coach of the popular strength and conditioning pro-gram, CrossFit.

But I reached a pivotal point at age 32, when, despite hav-ing a wonderful family, strong physical fitness and some profes-sional success, I felt untethered. I had become obsessed with physical fitness, and while that meant I had achieved my goal weight, I hadn’t done anything to heal myself emotionally and spiritually. There were underlying issues that I hadn’t dealt with, so I strayed from the very things that should have brought me the most happiness.

If I look at my life in terms of the five Fs, I can easily see why my house was crum-bling at the time. I was physically and financially fit, but I wasn’t paying enough atten-tion to the state of my faith or my family. I was a fractured person on a downward spiral, having little fun, and this cast a shadow over my entire life. I was depressed and disconnected, and felt like I was headed for a midlife crisis—and I wasn’t anywhere near midlife!

Even though I had lost all that extra weight as a teenager, I was still burdened by shame and guilt. I still saw myself as unattractive and unlovable. So when I started becoming successful, I binged on other people’s attention. I craved validation from others, because I had felt deprived of approval for so long. I neglected and disre-spected both my family and myself.

It was Christie who brought me back to what was important to me. I saw that I didn’t really need approval from the whole world, and that that kind of attention would never satisfy me anyway. What I really needed was a steady and secure connec-tion with the people most important to me: my wife and daughters.

Christie has always seen something in me that I couldn’t see in myself then. She saw me as the man that I wanted to be, and helped me choose to be that person. Similar to the epiphany I experienced when I was 15, I realized that I was the only person who could really turn my life around.

It all starts with clarity. You have to know WHY you do WHAT you do.”

—Start With Why author Simon Sinek

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