What is my purpose?

So yesterday I opened up and discussed “how to get over your ex” and my trouble lately closing the door on a girl I dated for a few months at the beginning of 2011.  I woke up this morning and I started to think about what I was going to write about today.  Do I write about a recipe, give some P90X tips or pointers, discuss the importance of Shakeology, or something else I was going to grab at so I could post a blog.  I sat in front of my computer, wasting time.  Checking email, posting on Facebook, going through Yahoo! news and Superherohype.com for any cool superhero gossip and I started to think, what am I doing?  What is my purpose?

I started to think about this in depth because of some of the comments that got posted to the link to yesterday’s blog on Facebook.  Nothing was said that was negative, just many varying points of view all mainly steaming from my list of my top 5 priorities:

My Top 5 Priorities are:

1. God
2. My Beachbody Coaching Business and Personal Fitness
3. Family & Friends
4. Meeting someone
5. Me

A few told me that I should be #1 and not #5.  I replied actually #2 & #5 are short of one in the same.  Then a friend commented that Beachbody and Beachbody Coaching should not define me and who I am.  So this started me to think, who am I?  What is my purpose?  Now before I get further into this blog I do want to preface that this blog is not intended to invoke pity, sympathy, negativity, or remorse. It is simply a personal reflection.  Yes, I can keep it off the internet and not make my thoughts public but what if someone stumbled upon this post and it helps them in some way?  Isn’t that worth sharing?  Isn’t it worth me being vulnerable for just a few minutes today?  Showing vulnerability is not a weakness, it is a strength. Continue reading and you’ll see why.

Now back to this question of “What is my purpose?” This is not the first time I’ve asked this of myself.  This is however the first time I am publicly writing about it.  I’ve shared this conversation with some members of my Coaching team, my Coach and mentor Traci Morrow, as well some key leaders inside of the Beachbody Corporate office and community.  You see when you become a Beachbody Coach your sponsor (the one who brought you into Coaching) is supposed to help you unlock your WHY?  Your WHY is your reason for becoming a Beachbody Coach. Many Coaches get started simply because they want to pay it forward. They have had success with Beachbody workouts like P90X, INSANTIY, Turbo Jam, Power 90 and Shakeology and want to share their excitement with others, and if they can earn some extra money along the way, why not.  Your WHY is constantly in development.  It is constantly growing and reshaping as your belief strengthens in this companies mission of helping to reverse and end the trend of obesity in the USA.  For others, they may not care so much about the companies mission but more on the bottom line.  Can they make money and how much?  Now I fall into several of these categories when I started to pursue my WHY.

I’ll give you a quick glimpse and over of my history and the development of my WHY.  Before I jump into that I thought my WHY was my purpose, but recently I’ve come to discover that my WHY was more of a WHAT.  So real quick, I signed up to be a Coach in 2007 after talking with many different Coaches on the Beachbody message boards.  To me it sounded like a scam, a scheme, a pyramid type thing so I didn’t join right away.  For the first three months Beachbody offered free enrollment and was waiving the $39.95 sign up fee.  I decided to enroll on March 31, 2007, the very last day for the free enrollment.  I trusted the company, the programs worked, I liked the CEO, Carl Daikeler and the things he shared with his customers.  I decided “WHY not.  I can always quit.”  And I almost did.  (I’ll save that for another post.)

I honestly joined became a Beachbody Coach because prior to joining I quit smoking.  When I turned 26 in September, I went on Nicoderm CQ and committed to quitting smoking.  I cut back on exercising because I didn’t want the sweat to cause the patch to fall off.  I also went back to eating poorly.  I Yo-Yoed from 185 back to 205 pounds.  I saw Coaching as a tool to help me lose this smokers weight that I just couldn’t take off.  What made me seriously look at Coaching as a business opportunity and a money making business was that I had lost my passion for my carreer as a pharmaceutical sales representative.  I love helping people, and I love helping people and getting paid to do it.

I attended a Tony Horton Fitness camp in NY, where I cornered Traci Morrow, my mentor and coach, and asked her “Is Coaching for real because I hate my job, I hate what I do.  Is Beachbody just a scheme or can I really make money? I have been thinking about going back to school for a 2nd degree in Physical Education.  Is this possible with Beachbody?  Can I make enough money to afford to go back to school and come out debt free?”  Traci simply told me the words that I tell every one of my Coaches who I sponsor, “Beachbody Coaching can be whatever it is that you want it to be.”

So that was my WHY.  After camp I hit Turbo Jam and P90X hard and lost the weight and got ripped.  I knew that if I was going to pay for my WHY (college) I had to lose the weight again.  I had to show people that it can be done and it can be maintained and what do you know? People started to ask me what I was doing and how I was doing it.  Some bought programs, some joined my team and others sat back and watched me.  But reflecting back my WHY wasn’t really a WHY it was a WHAT.  It was a thing.  Having a second degree in physcial education was a WHAT.  My WHY was so I could go back and be an inspiration to children.  To be that healthy and fit role model for them.  But was that it? Was that truely my pupose?

Fast forward and in 2010 I graduated SUNY Brockport with a Second Undergrad Degree with a BS in Physical Education, Teacher Certification.  And instead of pursuing Teaching and subbing right away I decided to use my time and dedicate more of that time to Beachbody and helping others, mainly my team of Coaches.  I was making about $600 to $800 a week when I finished school.  And while I attend school full-time I was working the Beachbody business 8 hours or less a week (Doesn’t feel like work).  I asked the question what happened if I went full time?  I decided to go full time for a couple of reasons:

1. There were no teaching jobs in NY
2. There were even less PE jobs
3. I saw how the system worked and wasn’t happy with it.  Jobs didn’t always go to the more qualified candidate.  They tended to go to the long term sub who put in their time which didn’t mean they were good teachers.
4. If the summer months didn’t grow my business, I could start to sub in the fall and play the game like everyone else.

Well, I’ve been full time ever since and I wonder from time to time, am I supposed to be full time?  Is this my purpose?  Is this what God has intended for me?  I know I’m meant to be involved with Beachbody.  I know I’m meant to do great things and help others but I’m struggling with my WHY.  My Purpose.  Not just for Coaching but for who I am bringing me back to my priorities.  I listed God as #1 but is He really number one in my life?  Do my actions match my words?  Does Jesus enter into my decision making process?  Do I pray, read, worship, and give thanks for all that has been given to me as much as I should?  In reality, my actions state that God is probably around #2 or 3.

I was saved in August 2010 and decided I wanted to build my relationship with Christ and learn more about his life, not just what the Catholic Church told me.  It’s been a struggle.  I allow things to distract me.  I’ll wake up late and blow of church or miss manage my time and miss my study group. I’ve failed to read the book Purpose Driven Life three times. Again, I’ll get more into that on a different post.

So I feel like I have been rambling jumping from point to point throughout my Beachbody Career as a customer and as a Coach.  Let me get back to why I’m writing this blog.  A friend and a coach on my team posted this comment about the “How to Get Over Your Ex” blog yesterday on my Facebook wall:

“Joey, it is rare and awesome to have your work inspire, motivate and excite you, but! You are not your work, it is just what you do, not who you are. When you figure out who you are, the right girl will be right in front of you 🙂“

So who am I?  What is my purpose?  In May 2009, I ruptured my Pec Major Tendon from my left arm.  I felt everything that who I was, all that I worked for, all that I have achieved and become was for nothing.  It was gone.  How could I bounce back from this injury.  Despite what my friend wrote up there about “it is what you do, not who you are.” I have to disagree with her on that because I never viewed Beachbody as work, or a part time job because it never ever felt like work or a job.  Beachbody became me because it made me happy.  It kept me positive, it inspired me and it inspired others.  That’s honestly why committed to Coaching in 2007 after Tony Horton’s Fitness Camp.  Not because it could (and did) allow me to go back to school without any student debt.  Beachbody Coaching made me a better person.  I loved who I was and who I became in the process.  Prior to Tony Horton’s fitness camp I was on a anti-depressant.  Smoking releases chemicals in your brain that stimulate you such as norepinephrine, dopamine and saratonin.  I was down and my doctor prescribed me Welbutrin to help me with these symptoms of depression. On the way to camp, I said no more.

I have been struggling with pain in my neck, pec, back and bicep for about the last year because of my Pec injury.  I haven’t been happy (consistently).  I have most definitely been struggling.  My workouts have suffered (2 to 3 times a week), I have started and stopped multiple Beachbody Workout Programs multiple times over the past year.  I have reacquired some bad eating habits that I thought I put past me a long time ago.  And I am back at 205 pounds, where I was when I started all of this.

It’s funny and ironic that today was the day I decided to write this blog. I guess it was time. It has honestly been on my mind and list of ideas to write about but never really felt ready to discuss it.  After writing all this and reflecting  on all that has happened in my life, the good and the bad, I believe I have discovered my purpose in my life.    I want to be happy.  I want to help others to discover this happiness.  I’ve found it through Beachbody and God.  I’ve strayed from both over the last year and I’ve been happy some of the time.  I want to be happy all of the time.   My friend said “You are not your work, it is just what you do, not who you are.”  But I am my work and my work is me.  Not many people get to say that and feel blessed to be able to say that.

I am positivity.  I am happiness.  I am excitement.  I am inspiration.  And I get all these things through God, from Beachbody, from Coaching, from working out, and from eating right.  My purpose is to be happy and I’m the happiest when I get to share my passion with others.  Beachbody’s mission statement is “To help others achieve healthy and fulling lives.”  I’m changing it so it reads “To help others achieve HAPPY, healthy and fulfilling lives by starting with you first.”  This is why I have been successful as a Beachbody Coach and this is why I will continue to be successful as a Beachbody Coach.  It makes me happy and brings sheer joy to my life and to others I get to share it with and through all this I will be better.

So here are my new top Four Priorities and they are my top four because they make me happy:

1. God
2. Me & Beachbody Fitness & Coaching
3. Family and friends
4. Finding someone who shares the top 3 with me

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