Hey POPsters!
Last night for the first time in my life I was able to nearly straighten my leg into a standing split!
It’s been a personal goal of mine to be able to do this for a while. This past week, I’ve been practicing, practicing, practicing after every workout – just stretching my hamstrings and pulling my leg up into the air in a yoga dancer’s pose (knee bent). Yea it hurt, but I found comfort in the discomfort (Thank you to my good friend Jemie for this one). I held myself together, and eased into the pain. After about 10 seconds I’d switch legs and keep going and going until I was too tired to pull my leg anymore.
It’s not perfect and my legs could definitely be straighter, but I was so shocked to look into the side mirror and see this image. I had my friend snap a shot for me to share with you all! I never ever thought I’d see the day where my leg could come up like that but, it just comes to show ya that when you genuinely work towards a goal…every bit of work results in progression.
Lessons…
- Don’t let dreams be dreams – turn them into reality
- Dreams don’t happen overnight – you gotta work towards them
- Don’t cheat – honest work gets honest rewards
- Find your comfort zone, then surpass it – this is how you grow as a person
- Find comfort in discomfort – new experiences are never easy, but you can tell yourself to be calm and make the most out of it
- If you want something bad enough, you will figure out a way to make it happen <– my favorite!!!
The only thing standing between you and your goal is…your mind. Your mind is a funny thing. On good days, you feel like you can conquer the world. On bad days, you can’t even look at yourself in the mirror. Your mind ultimately determines your thoughts, emotions, and actions. That’s a lot huh? That’s why we need to think as positively as possible…in order to let our mind feel good…in order to feel like you’re unstoppable. That drive is priceless.
This blog post was inspired by a few human interactions that have happened over the past week that have kept me thinking a lot about human beings…how we choose to interact with each other…and how we can push each other. I feel so fortunate to be currently surrounded by inspiring and genuinely caring friends, family, and students…but do you know that that is a choice I make?
The more happy interactions that you can have with people, the more inspired you’ll be to do greater things. I’m serious.
I once heard that the 5 people that are closest to you are a direct reflection of you. Think about it. Who are you always talking to, hanging out with? Do you guys have similar habits, interests, and qualities? I bet you do. You know why? Equilibrium. Hang out with a group of mean girls? You’re probably going to be making fun of people whether you like it or not. If you’re around it, you get used to it. Soon enough, it’ll become “normal”. On the other end of the spectrum…hang out with a bunch of super successful entrepreneurs? You’ll probably be inspired to invent, create, and design the next big thing. I mean, naturally, you will want to be successful too! Just makes sense. Again, it’s balance…you feed off of their energy and they feed off of yours.
So guess what I do to people who are negative? I literally delete them out of my life. Yes that means unfollow off of all social media too. I don’t want to waste my thoughts and energy thinking about them. No one has the time anyway right?
This deletion creates space in your brain and your heart to love others who show you love back.
If the deletion seems harsh, trust me, you’ve got to find comfort in the discomfort. For your own good!
Like how my standing spits hurt. They do. But if I wanna achieve a certain goal, I will do what I can to get there. I will accept the pain and the hurt in exchange for progression on my flexibility.
Oh wow! Where did the time go! It’s 6am now!!! Oh my…I seriously need to stop being so excited about writing to you guys in the wee hours of the morning!!
Have a fabulous day. See you all soon!
<3 Cassey
I want to be able to do that! Better get practicing.
Hey girly, I know this is an old post…but I’ve literaly been reading it every morning for the last 3 days! I haven’t made a ton of friends since moving to southern California a few years ago (I work A LOT, I’m sure you know the drill) so I basically just go with spending all my free time with the small group of people I have gotten to know. After reading that the 5 people in your inner circle are a reflection of you I had um…second thoughts haha. It’s so HARD to delete negative people from your life, but so HEALTHY for both parties! I’m now focusing on deleting the negative and not feeling bad about it, and trying to spend more time with people I admire who are positive and have similar goals + passions. For some reason, so effing hard, but such a great thing!
Thanks for the inspiration <3