, the theme of my life for the last week is that 1980s classic from The Police, “Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you …” – you know the one – the Stalker’s Anthem!

Life is turned upside down!

But as I am sure any puppy owner (or new mom x 1000) can attest, patience is THE virtue. And wow, mine is being tested big time.

It’s not that I didn’t intellectually know it was going to be a lot of work, it was just … disorienting when my intellectual understanding met the reality of the situation. So much so that I had a mini-breakdown on the first night and pretty much wanted to give her back. WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO??? She cried. I cried.

But the last few days have been better, now that I am getting her into a routine and understanding her different moods (like, I know when #2 is coming because there’s lots of bounding around). And it’s getting a teensy bit easier, and I am a teensy bit less stressed out, and I am getting a teensy bit more used to the new routine.

I’ve never had a pet before. And now I am learning so many new things that I never even paid attention to before. I am trying, messing up a little, and then trying to get better, learning more, practicing more, growing, all while trying to stay sane!

But it’s the same in any endeavor, and man, giving up is easy as hell! No wonder so many people do.

I think about the women I have worked with who are trying to lose fat or gain muscle. The physique  journey is a hard one! You go forwards, backwards, sideways, losing and gaining, learning and growing, messing up and renewing your fortitude. Rinse and repeat.

No wonder so many want to throw in the towel, say eff it and just eat whatever. It’s a ton of work. There are a million things to learn, especially once you start to see that no one else has THE answer, and really it’s on you to learn about YOU in order to make your nutrition, training and body change sustainable.

Then I think about my Best of You women—80+ of whom are in their first 6 months of building an online business. It’s effing tough! Spending hours creating great content, writing, doing videos, interacting on social media, only to come to the realization that they have to KEEP doing all that work for many more months and years! In addition, they’re also learning business and marketing, which are completely separate skillsets from being a fitness professional.

No wonder people give up.

The ones who make it are the ones who fall so love with their creation and the process of creating, that they do it for the passion, not the outcomes. If they never made a dime, they’d be fine. Ironically, it’s those who have that exact attitude that tend to create the most viably successful businesses precisely because they were the few who were able to stick it out, stay flexible, not take their mess-ups personally, and KEEP GOING even when they felt like no one else cared.

They remembered that they do. They care.

Any time you are learning a new skill, there will be a million times you want to give up. Heck, I’m still not totally sold on ol’ Pip, but what I am sold on is my own ability to level up my skill set.

This stuff is no joke. I am uncomfortable, inconvenienced and having to mentally work a thousand times harder than normal at something.

But I know that the difficulty is temporary. And I know that I have to earn the right to easy. And I know that the payoff will be everything everyone always says it is when you have a great dog.

You don’t get to skip steps.

You don’t get to have a body you love without doing some intense mindset work, calling yourself out on the stories you’re telling yourself that are keeping you trapped in not feeling good enough.  

You don’t get to have a viable business where you can work from wherever and travel the globe without having to work your ass off in completely uncomfortable ways for a very long time.

You don’t get to have a great relationship without showing up to it every day, choosing it and acting in a way that nurtures it and shows insane amounts of appreciation for it.

And you don’t get to have a potty-trained dog that never cries and always walks perfectly beside you and never bites anything, without teaching her those things from the get-go, and being consistent with them over and over again.

Or at least, that’s the tale I am telling myself to get myself through these long days! Lol.

But the good news is that my self-belief matters.

What I say to myself matters. How I show up when things are hard matters. Even writing all of this out in an email like this matters! (So thank you for allowing it ;)) It helps me stay the course, by shining a light on my difficulties, acknowledging them, and having the opportunity to reiterate to myself the concepts of resiliency, choice, grit and patience.

Wish me luck!

Xo,

Jill

P.S. I know there are many dog lovers/owners out there who have tons more knowledge and perspective then I do, and I’d love to hear from you! I welcome to tips, tools or insights. And also, feel free to send words of encouragement that is this only temporary!😂😂😂

P.P.S. I'm not going to hammer your feed with puppy photos, BUT if you want to get the play-by-play, I'm chronicling everything on Snapchat - username xjillfitx 🐶