For the 2% of you who are still clinging to your New Years Resolutions this far into the year, good for you. I’m proud of you. Well done. Most people have already given up, so you’re already impressive.

I just wanted to address something near and dear to my own heart.

I was discussing resolutions with a friend of mine who’s made a resolution to lose a significant amount of weight. I’m super proud of him and think it will be great for his mind, body, and spirit. We got talking about fitness and I mentioned I’m also dieting for my own fitness goals right now. He- being nice- made it clear he didn’t think I needed to diet. I understand he was being sweet about it, so it didn’t bother me in the slightest.

But I want the world to know that every person has their own set of goals. When I say I’m dieting, it’s not because I’m insecure about my own body. I love my body. I’m extremely proud of it. It serves me well. I take really good care of it and I know it’s healthy, lean, and strong.

I’m “dieting” because I’m trying to improve it. There are plenty of ways I can improve it and mold it and make it even better. And it’s not because I’m unhappy with how it is now. It’s because I believe we should always be improving ourselves and working on ourselves and challeging ourselves to get to that next level.

Yes, I’m on a diet. Yes, I know I look fine. Yes, I love where my body is right now. And yes, there is room for improvement.

Just like I continue to push myself in my career. Yes, I’m fortunate to perform constantly. Yes, I love the peers I’m around and an inspired by them. Yes, I know I’ve had lots of successes. And yes, there is plenty of room for improvement.

Because if we’re not challenging ourselves to reach that next level, we’re plateauing. And nobody wants to plateau.

I also know that I don’t always reach the goals I set out for. Yes, I want to eat healthier. But sometimes your team gets their asses handed to them in the playoffs by the team you absolutely hate. So you have to have a Guinness (or three) to calm your nerves. It can be two steps forward and one step back sometimes. But as far as I can calculate, that still leaves me one step ahead of where I was before I took those steps.

Math while steppin‘ is hard.

May point is, it’s a process. That’s the beauty of life and the fact that every day we get to wake up with the opportunity to improve. And if we don’t at least approach it proactively  and positively (and forgive ourselves no matter what the outcome), we never get to move ahead.

So keep on pluggin’. Keep on chuggin’. And keep on gettin’ back up.