The Muddy Path

Can you guess in which photo I feel the most powerful, confident, happy, blessed, unstoppable and fearless? Some might think the first picture...but they would be wrong. I have never felt more on top of the world, alive, strong and confident than when I complete a Spartan 💪🏻

There was a time (lol, actually a LONG time, much of my life)that I placed value and defined my worth based on my looks and even more so on the opinions of others...and whether it was good or negative, I viewed myself through the eyes of others and my own self-deprecating, self-defeating, self-loathing filter. Yes, even as I trained hard, watched what I ate, dressed up for photo shoots and posed on stage and in front of the camera, I was being judged by my harshest critic. Myself. But I have chosen another path. 💪🏻

I chose the muddier one...the one that doesn’t place emphasis on what my body looks like, but rather focuses on what it can do. It gives me skills and strengths to work towards improving. And I have a hell of a good time...plus I can still wear my waterproof/mudproof mascara and feel damn pretty, even covered head to toe in mud, scrapes and bruises. I’m not knocking anyone down for NOT taking this route. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’m simply saying that my choice has changed my self image and I have learned to love the real me. Not the image of me that others preferred to see.