{"id":986,"date":"2013-06-20T21:14:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T02:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lovingonme.com\/?p=986"},"modified":"2017-05-19T09:18:17","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T14:18:17","slug":"cant-see-the-forest-for-the-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/2013\/06\/20\/cant-see-the-forest-for-the-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t See the Forest for the Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Carlie1\"<\/a>I have always been active in just about any and everything you can imagine. My competitive drive is at times, overpowering, for lack of a better term. \u00a0I relished my athletic abilities, but when I got to college I had no sport to play, no practice to attend, no active anything to adhere to. Therefore I was forced to start this dreadful thing called \u201cworking out.\u201d Insert the treadmills, ellipticals, medicine balls, and meathead guys in the weight room here. I hated it. I missed being a part of something bigger than myself. I missed my team. So I slacked off… Okay I fell off, all the way off. That mixed with two jobs, an overloaded upper level course schedule, being in a sorority, and numerous all-nighters equated to a 35lb heavier Carlie.<\/p>\n

I was so disappointed that I ever let myself get to that point! I couldn\u2019t believe how I let myself down. I had always been really healthy, fit, and athletic. I was always the one encouraging and inspiring others and now here I was: the girl who couldn\u2019t even encourage herself, let alone anybody else. This wasn\u2019t me. It couldn\u2019t be me. I didn\u2019t look like me or feel like me and I for dang sure couldn\u2019t fit any of my clothing. So there I was at rock bottom. Not only did I feel like I lost a quintessential part of me, but my confidence plummeted too.<\/p>\n

I meandered down there for a while until one day it just clicked. I was telling some friends about this mentoring program I loved doing and explained it with such passion that I surprised myself. I hadn\u2019t felt that spark in a long time. One of my good friends must have noticed too because she told me that was the first time she had seen me this happy in a long time. \u201cTada!\u201d like a lightning bolt it struck me. I had been so consumed with all the negativity in my life that I forgot to look out at the world around me. Not only was this a catalyst for me to conquer my fitness fiasco, but it also enabled me to focus my vision.<\/p>\n

This up and down conundrum ignited a passion in me to help other people not only reach their fitness goals, but become the person they\u2019ve always wanted to be. The person they were destined to be. I plan on getting my personal training certification so I can help people get back in touch with the body and the entire self that they love. When you feel good about you,\u00a0you can do anything. Especially when striving to accomplish God\u2019s purpose in your life. But it\u2019s not just about being physically fit. Feeling good about you and preparing yourself for your goals requires a total transformation: mind, body, and soul.<\/p>\n

My hopes and dreams for the world are that people learn to look beyond the narrow confines of themselves long enough to realize their true purpose in life. We\u2019ve all been there, where we are so caught up with ourselves and what\u2019s going on internally that we forget to look up and see what\u2019s going on in the world around us. We become so consumed with our worries, fears, and problems that we forget about our talents, strengths, and quirks. We forget what makes us different and essentially us. \u00a0Like the old saying \u201cYou can\u2019t see the forest for the trees.\u201d We forget the big picture and have tunnel vision for the trouble directly blocking us. For me this happened twice, once with my fitness fiasco and once with the loss of a family member, but this consumption can arise out of anything.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so hard to fight for things you care about when you feel broken inside, but ultimately that can be what heals you. Focusing on your purpose and your dreams in spite of how you feel internally and regardless of all the chaos going on in your life can lead to your breakthrough. Imagine what we could accomplish if we all branched out even though we\u2019re going through storms. Not to mention that any second spent working towards your dreams is a second well used. So utilize your seconds wisely and don\u2019t forget to look up and around every so often. A change of view may be just what you need.<\/p>\n

My challenge to you is to shake up your \u201cview.\u201d When we look at the same things and have similar tasks every day, the monotony of life can begin to blur the world around us. One of my best friends gave me a quote that reminds me to look beyond the blur: \u201cFocus on your purpose, not yourself.\u201d For a daily reminder I scrawled it across the top of my bathroom mirror in expo marker. Your challenge is to find a quote, a picture, or a memento that reminds you of something important or reassures you of something you need to hear or of something need to do, and to place it in a feature location where you know you\u2019ll see it every day. Whenever you stop \u201cseeing\u201d the item, post it in a new spot.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to seeing and thoroughly enjoying the forest in its entirety.<\/p>\n

\"Carlie2\"<\/a>Carlie is a recent college graduate who plans on going back for her Masters. She is a Project Engineer at Balfour Beatty Construction and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Carlie loves volunteering in the community in various ways, but especially with mentoring programs and for homebuilding organizations. She loves almost any and every sport and has a newfound passion for yoga. Other past times include cooking, reading, traveling, learning, and trying new things.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always been active in just about any and everything you can imagine. My competitive drive is at times, overpowering, for lack of a better term. \u00a0I relished my athletic abilities, but when I got to college I had no sport to play, no practice to attend, no active anything to adhere to. Therefore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"switch_like_status":true,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[204998050,114917237],"tags":[204997670,6904,922,5189,337,204997786,122792808,105072],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/carlie11.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eAxC-fU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8966,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/8966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}