Fearless Faith in Timing...

Those who have been on this journey with me for the past few years may remember that I started writing to make sense of the influence in timing on life. Today I can sit here and laugh as I tell you, what I thought was just a mish mash of coincidences for many years is really just life.  

How often do we sit back in life out of fear and wonder “what if?”  Retreating from living, protecting a false sense of our control over life. What if we sat back and could say “what if I hadn’t?” Actually appreciating how much has happened simply because we did. That’s where I am today. 

There have been many milestone’s along the path where I wondered if I my decisions along the way had landed me in a worse place than if I’d just stayed still. Those moments never last more than a few moments before something seriously amazing comes along next, and I realize I’ve couldn’t have been happier with any other decision than the one I made. 

In all of it, I can only be grateful to have thrown myself at life, rode the high tides and the low tides, and even the rip tides. I’ve been up, I’ve been down, and not matter where I set my sight on the shore line, that wasn’t where I wound up… I wound up somewhere better. It was the fearless choices I made that brought me here. What if I hadn’t made those?

Only 6 months ago, I started a new adventure in my journey towards personal growth, CrossFit. Something I literally started because a perfect stranger at a hotel gym told me “I needed it” and bet me that if I gave it a shot, I’d never look back. More out of ego, I satisfied my part of the bargain. I texted him immediately after and said - “thanks for getting me to check it out, I definitely know now, it’s not for me.” The very next day, I woke up and texted the same guy back “OK, I lied. I am in love!”  

Only 2 months later I took my first spill on box jumps, collided with a concrete wall and scored a goose egg the size of a hockey puck on my forward. I sported a black eye for the next month. Many wondered why I would push myself to that level anymore in life. Just 48 hours later, I walked back into the box, my ego a bit shattered until I got a high five, then another, than a story about someone else’s fall, then a pat on the back for coming back.  I smiled… I grew. The embarrassment was in my head. 

The piece I didn’t share, the accident happened the night before I shot the cover photos for my book, “Here I Am NOW.” The photo shoot went on. When I released the book, one of the hosts at the media event got wind of my black eye (which I learned could not be covered by any amount of makeup). That very day, I met The Fitness Elite magazine editor, Chris. And a new opportunity was born…

So the story continues, my life continues to evolve. I have been blessed with more opportunities for simply embracing life, than sitting back in my comfort zone. I have grown not only physically strong, but mentally. I have always been thankful for the ups in life, but I truly have never been more grateful for the downs. It was in the challenges that I grew stronger.

I look forward to sharing some new and exciting projects coming soon as a result of all the ups and downs… in the meantime, scraped knees have nothing on this girl - KEEP LIVING my friends!  

And share your stories!  jax@jaxmattioli.com