Can I Be a Fanatic and Still Succeed?

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Happy FriYAY my wonderful fellow HIVERS!

My favorite day of the week is upon us and I'm pumped after crushing yet another beast mode session under the orange lights and yes looking forward to Hive account@actifit post it later on today. 💪

Needless to say, I am ready to crush the day. How about you? ARE YOU READY?

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I've learned a lot of hard lessons in life and being raised on welfare by a Mother who although had to rely on the government to help keep food on our table and roof over our heads, she barely bought herself a pair of socks before she was sure we had the comforts we needed.

Now, don't get me wrong. Back in those days, we also had it made; because in typical Puerto Rican fashion my grandmother who had over 26 brothers and sisters (that we know of) had family nearby, if we ever needed anything. My mother never really wanted anyone's help. The sad thing is that my mother was saddled with medical issues and subsequently died at 62 ravaged by cancer, so grudgingly she had to accept it; when there was no choice.

Add insult to injury, my father lived right around the corner from us raising his new family and so it goes.

This made me the man of the house early on in life, but it also took me to the streets and becoming a man much sooner that I'm sure my late mother would have wanted me to. The fact of the matter is, that if I was bringing in money and helping with the bills then I kind of became my own person and pretty much, just did what I wanted to - so the streets became my playground in more ways than one.

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Enough about all that, I just wanted to set the stage about today's post.

For the most part of my life, I got attached to toxic environments and situations that didn't do much for my growth as a person and although, I always maintained a sense of respect for myself and others - I could have done better and mostly for myself, as I always believe that treat people like you would want to be treated.

So going through those situations, being consistent with something that wasn't beneficial for me; especially health related was obviously potentially damaging.

For example: for many years, I smoked and it was a daily thing. I wanted a smoke after every meal, after every drink and for every opportunity I could have to smoke a cigarette - I took it.

Was I a fanatic of smoking? Is there such a thing? I can tell you that, they say; we must not have no regrets in life. I say, fu&K that! I have plenty of regrets!! I just try not dwelling on them. At the very top of those regrets are the years I put into smoking.

When I crush a workout like I've done the last 8 years plus, I push the memory of that horrible habit further down into the depth of my regrettable actions in my life.

If you smoke, I apologize. I never judge others for something I've done.

Unfortunately, I have to live with that being part of my history. It's been a long time now, that I don't smoke and honestly if I tried one today; I might as well start posting my obituary.

So success came in me stopping and stopping for good. Am I right?

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There are other things I did to my body that I'm not proud of and when I came to the realization of needing to do something to live longer, I stopped a lot of those things; especially smoking and began working out a few days a week. I cut out chips, soda, cigarettes and decreased my fast food intake, which is now at near zero (there are cheat days - lol).

Then early on in my new fitter and healthier lifestyle, an Orangetheory Fitness studio was opening up nearby where I lived in Seminole County and I knew nothing of the brand; but I trusted the friends who had researched it and convince, my ex-wife and me to try it.

Here's the thing, I was never a gym person. For good reason, I preferred to lift cans of beers and dance in the clubs than workout at a gym.

With all that said, when I had decided to go all in on being fitter and healthier; I went to Planet Fitness until OTF came along and let me tell you - as that saying goes - the rest is history.

I never ever never ever never looked back.

It was full steam ahead and at that point, I never felt as much passion for something that was actually good for me than being an Orangetheory member. I always give it credit for saving my life. I honestly feel that way.

What's the point?

I pay my membership fee every month and I am satisfied to do so and never feel cheated or undervalued and what it provides me, far exceeds anything that I could have asked for - when it comes to my health and fitness. Nothing.

I don't promote it for any monetary reasons. I could give two shits who joins or not.

What I did earn, was confidence, the ability to be faster, stronger, fitter and healthier than at any time in my life and I'm 55 years old; so that says a lot.

The community is amazing and it's WORLDWIDE. I'm connected to thousands of coaches, members, owners and staff on Social Media and when Tiffany and I travel they know us in a lot of the studios.

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Then came HIVE and I believe in this community and I am proud to be part of this community.

Where it can get tricky for me is that I came to this blockchain with a whole different mentality. My expectations was about, how am I going to make money on this thing.

Now, my thinking has pivoted to; what can I do to contribute to this community, to HIVE and my gratitude for the CTP Swarm.

Here's the funniest part of all and it boggles my own mind.

When the CTP team was giving us hints about the re-launch of ListNerds and then it becoming a reality; once again, my mentality was skewed.

Then the relaunch happened and all I saw was the potential of this thing on the HIVE blockchain and it didn't matter how I was going to benefit from it anymore, but how is it going to benefit the HIVE community.

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Perhaps, I've set myself back a bit from my own expectations; but I'm proud to be part of the folks that was shouting loud and proud about ListNerds 2.0 and it may not show in many ways - in the numbers, in the creativity and other amazing things that others are doing.

I'm a unique type of person and I roll with the punches and I'm ok with being the fanboy, but I take all this shit seriously. Everything from being on HIVE, being a CTP member and enjoying the ListNerds ride.

I'm going to be on The Cryptomaniacs podcast this coming Tuesday and you know, that's pretty frickin cool. I don't believe I ever missed a live episode out of the 100 and now I'm going to be a guest of Hive account@jongolson and Hive account@taskmaster4450le badass podcast.