Life Can Be Crazy!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
It’s 2005 and I’ve finally finished my bachelors
degree. Student teaching has led me 1500
miles away from my home town of Mayville,
ND, population 2500 (on a good day, with a festival going on, with good
weather, and probably a holiday). I’ve
executed the first stage of my 5-year plan.
See, at that point in my life I lived and died by my 5-year plan. Everything I did was geared towards making my
plan happen. Here was my plan:
Step 1: Obtain
teaching position in Aldine ISD
Step 2: Start my
Masters Degree in year two of teaching (2007)
Step 3: Finish
Masters Degree (2009)
Step 4: Obtain
administration position after 3rd year of teaching
Step 5: Complete 2
years of administration experience in Aldine ISD
Step 6: Move back to
the great white north and continue my administration career.
Everything was on track!
Steps 1-5 went off without a hitch.
I taught high school math for 3 years while obtaining my Masters Degree
in Education Administration. From there
I moved into an assistant principal role at a Middle School in Aldine ISD. I was pretty darn proud of myself. I was a young, energetic assistant principal
who was trying dearly to hold on to my “teacher morals” as an
administrator. As year one wound down
and year two was on the horizon I realized how much I hated my job. To say I was miserable would be a catastrophic
understatement. I began to feel myself
care less and less about the kids at school and more about the politics
involved. I was stressed to the max and
had lost sight of why I chose education as my profession in the first place. To be completely honest, my experience was
ruining the profession for me.
While I endured year two of my administration position, my
saving grace was that I had found CrossFit.
I started toying with CrossFit in my last year of teaching and continued
to pursue it in the two years in administration. CrossFit was my escape. It was quickly becoming my passion and a much
larger portion of my life. I began
spending more time at the box than I did at home. I would wrap up my day at school and head to
the box, spending 3+ hours working out and socializing. I finally took the plunge and decided to get
my level I certification. I became
CrossFit certified and began coaching on a very part time basis. As I learned to love the coaching aspect more
and more and hate my job even more, conversations revolving around opening
another box became more frequent.
Finally, in April of 2010 I made the biggest decision of my
life. I decided that my 5-year plan
sucked. I had flawlessly executed steps
1-5 of the plan and now decided to scrap it all, abandon what I had worked so
hard to obtain to pursue the opportunity to own my own CrossFit box. I put in my resignation notice at the school
district to be effective that summer. I
began working more at the box and started the search for real estate to open
what is now Pin Up CrossFit. I was
scared. Really scared.
I no longer had a 5-year plan. Hell, I didn’t even have a 1-year plan! I never dreamed of being a business owner and
the thought of relying on an income that can fluctuate like an obese 60-year
old’s blood pressure made me nauseous. I
lived week to week, month to month, hoping that we would pull in enough cash to
pay my rent and fill up my truck with gas.
My savings account dwindled slowly.
I can still remember the morning I was sitting at my desk in my
apartment crunching numbers. I had a
couple bills to pay and knew rent was due in just a couple days. I quickly realized that this was the last month
I could pull from my savings account to pay bills. It had dried up. Then, as if God decided it was time, I got a
text from my business partner – “we made a profit this month!” It was actually happening. We were getting paid to do what we
loved. To coach other individuals into a
healthy lifestyle.
Today I don’t have to live week to week or even month to
month sometimes. I make a modest income
and manage to squeak out a few luxuries here and there. I don’t have a job. I don’t have to go to work. I don’t have a 5-year plan. I have a passion, a gym, and a lifestyle many
dream about.
Life can be crazy.
You can bust your ass to execute your plan. I can happen flawlessly. But in the end, what does it get you? Plan execution? Don’t close doors. Open them up as you walk by. You never know what might be inside one that
can change your entire life. Let life be
crazy – or you might go crazy.
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