Fighting Shape

It's been a stressful few months for me.  I don't want to admit it -- I think we all lead stressful lives -- but some things have been getting the better of me. And that means I haven't been doing as well on the eating, sleeping, having fun, working out front as I'd like. I was pretty hard on myself about it, because I know I can do better.  Thankfully, several people have pointed out to me that I'm using the wrong rubric -- I've been comparing myself to me without stress, and that's not fair.  Really, I should be comparing myself to someone with equal amounts of stress: someone else in the middle of changing pretty much everything about their life.  We can only juggle so much, and if people keep throwing more balls up in the air without giving an extra hand to keep them going, we're going to drop some.  So, I've dropped some stuff. It makes sense. 

While I've been trying to pick everything back up, I've started thinking -- what is it that I really want? What is the purpose that is driving my actions? I know there are all kinds of good reasons for being healthy, but I'm not very good at doing things just to do them.  I try to choose my actions to keep in line with a goal.  And for now that goal is to get back into "fighting shape."

I can hear you now. Fighting shape? What are you talking about?  As much as I like to remember the brief periods I dabbled in boxing and muay thai, I'm a lawyer not a fighter. (Though if I were a client, I'd hope they mean the same thing.)  Like the term "home," "fighting shape" means a lot of different things to different people.  So here's what it means to me.

Being in fighting shape means

• feeling strong when I walk into a ring, be it a physical, legal or personal arena;
• being rested and alert enough to face any challenge;
• being guilt free about the choices I make and the values I hold to walk with swagger no matter where I go;
• having a corner of talented folks who have my back;
• having a gameplan, but being able to change it depending on what my opponent throws at me;
• not being afraid to get hit.

It's simple stuff really, things I'm sure everyone wants.  But it's a heck of a lot easier to think about preparing for a fight than preparing for life, so I'm going to stick with the analogy and roll with it.  Strangely, just thinking about it in these terms has helped me come up with the plan to get where I want to be.  I'm rolling out a new personal challenge soon, and would be delighted if anyone else wanted to join.  Details will come shortly.  For now, just know I'm glad to have y'all in my corner.