Barbara and Balboa

I have a lot on my mind at the moment. The past week has been a real tough one both professionally and personally, capped off by the passing of my very dear friend Barbara yesterday morning.

She was a phenomenal women - eighty years old and yet she was still coming to Thursday lunch time aerobics with me up until a few weeks ago! In some ways, she was like my adopted granny but mostly she was just my friend; loyal, supportive and a bloody good laugh. I'm going to miss her terribly.

I always feel that I am very fortunate in the friends that I have. Life, as we all know, is not always easy and sometimes it can be hard to keep your face turned towards the light. I'm lucky that I have people around me who care enough to keep me on track when I really just feel like giving up. When my chin starts to go down, they make me pick it right back up again. I often wish that I could repay them in some way for all that they do for me. I guess it's on my mind because the chance to repay Barb for her many kindnesses has now passed.  So I have instead been thinking about how best to honour her memory and our friendship and I think I know what to do.

I know what she wanted for me and though I don't know that I'm capable of quite the level of greatness she expected of me, I am going to go ahead and pursue it. It involves a change of career, taking the financial hit of re-training, probably a bit of a bumpy ride for a while and, most difficult of all, having a decent amount of faith in myself and my abilities. It's something that I have been mulling over for far too long and it's been suggested as the right path for me by so many people - I think it's high time I just got on with it. Watch this space ...

In the mean time, we'll be doing it Rocky-style - just keep on taking the hits and not giving up. Determination is where it's at!

My plans for the future will take a little time to come to fruition so my aim for now is just to keep the faith. I figured I was in need of a shot in the arm in terms of boosting my self-belief. This means time for a fitness assessment! It's something I like to do occasionally just to see how things are progressing. I will be doing a more comprehensive check later in the week but last night I decided to see how many press ups I could do in a minute. The last three reps were not far off pathetic so I discounted them ... leaving me with a total of 76. I'm beyond pleased with that! It's a good and very timely reminder that I am capable of much more than I think I am.