Adversity is a Bit*ch, But We Must Strive in it

Ever since, I became active - daily - on hive; my brain is always doing summersaults. I am always trying to put thoughts together for a post and I just don't want to submit an @actifit or @lukeisalive without giving it context, telling a story, sharing my day; regardless of how mundane it may be.

My goal is to be me - always - and take the good with the bad. If people like it - AWESOME! If people don't - FUK THEM! Guess what, that is how I've always lived my life. When you grow up surrounded by crazy mofo's in the streets of Brooklyn, New York; it's easy to have an extra "don't give a fck in you.

With all that said, I don't want folks to get it twisted and believe I don't care about things that matter. My health and fitness journey matters, the HIVE community matters, my affiliate marketing journey matters and the list goes on.

A morning like today, really didn't take much for me to come up with something to post about. Benchmark challenges at Orangetheory Fitness amps me up. It's the opportunity to see where I'm at on my journey. Granted, I begin my 8th year as a member next month away - a few days away.

During those eight years, I've done shit; that I never did half my age. I've proven to myself over and over, that anything is possible; merely by completing a half-marathon in my fifties, working out in these OTF HIIT sessions 6 out of 7 days a week for over 7 years now. A couple of Rugged Maniac obstacle courses to be proud of and a bunch of 5K's and 10K's that I'm still doing and still continue to kill it at OTF.

But, each of these moments have been some of the most exhilarating moments of my life and continue to be.

Everything I've done from changing my eating habits, working out through pain, failing to finish running a half marathon and less than two weeks later running another one and finishing it, crushing benchmark challenges at OTF and so on.

and that's just on my health and fitness journey.

Nothing has been easy, but it's not supposed to be. Can challenges and obstacles be a pain in the ass? You bet! But how the hell are we supposed to enjoy the wins, if we don't full experience the losses?

My fiancé Tiffany and I have been working hard to get back to our Pre-COVID experience. Two weeks of pure hell that happened back in March of 2021 and we are still dealing with the fallout from it. It screwed us up mentally and admittedly physically.

So now, new challenges are upon us.

In today's benchmark challenge, we had to run a mile in as little time as possible (on the treadmill) and my personal best Pre-COVID is 6 minutes and 36 seconds. That seems like eons ago, but it was exactly on October 7, 2020.

Like most OTF benchmarks they are about 6 months apart. It's been a struggle to get back to my personal record since then. My next best was 7:19 since then. Went as slow as 7:47.

Today, I ran it in 7:17.

So, after getting a personal record very recently on my Rowing Benchmark, I'm at least, slowly but surely heading towards my PR instead of away from it.

This might sound dorky, but I model most of my life through my health and fitness journey; because that is what has had the biggest impact towards positive change in my life.

With that journey, there is undoubtedly; much adversity to endure and guess what? I continue - ALIVE & THRIVING!

Now I use that same mindset in everything else I do, whether it's generating an income through online marketing, being a better man to my fiancé and her boys and providing quality results for my employers.

The greatest lesson that I've learned through my weight loss, building endurance to do these HIIT sessions, becoming faster as a runner and stronger with the body weight exercises, TRX, resistance bands, rowing machines and dumbbells - that I am capable of so much. That I can handle the wins and losses like a champ.

Getting through any challenge takes a lot of consistency, effort and patience. The moment one uses it as an excuse not to move forward that is when they've lost before they entered the game.

ALIVE and THRIVING

I AM ALIVE

*HIVE Divider Courtesy of @doze