To Achieve Authentic Change Work with the Best

Christian Bryan, Personal Trainer (photo from FitnessSF.com)

"To lead people, walk behind them"  Lao Tzu

Christian Bryan: Authentic Leader

In February 2015, I began a serious journey of personal transformation.  I recognized that in order to achieve Authentic Change I had to work hard and I needed the right leadership to get me there.  I hired a writing coach so I could work on my publications, and I hired a personal trainer so I could work on me. 

I got very lucky when I joined FitnessSF's Fillmore location.  At the age of 60 I now feel a certain sense of freedom.  Maybe it was not such much because of my age as it is my desire to finally achieve my dreams. Whatever my motivation I shared with the membership representative all I planned to accomplish.  

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality" - Warren Bennis

As I talked about my goals - lose 170 pounds, train for a triathlon and run the Paris Marathon - the rep waved in a young man whose smile was the first thing you see. He listened to my goals with genuine interest and grew excited for me.  He was enthusiastic about taking the journey with me.  He inspired me, not with sales jargon and BS, but with an authentic desire to be a part of my success.  

That was the day I met my trainer Christian Bryan.  He personifies the message of Lao Tzu - he leads from behind giving me confidence and motivating me to push harder and further for myself.  

Christian is on a path to greatness and I am fortunate to be a member of his following.  His has an impressive list of certifications among his credentials.  He specializes in working with Seniors and those like myself who are fighting obesity. 

Christian works with me in a very Zen-like manner, calmly demonstrating the movements and inspiring me to go further than I thought.  

Because of him I have gone from being unable to walk a block to not only walking but almost running up stairs!  In 2016 I will complete a Triathlon and he will be there to cheer me on I know.  In 2017 I will run the Paris Marathon and I plan to have Christian there with me as well.  

If you are lucky enough to live in San Francisco and/or are already a member of FitnessSF, I strongly recommend you signup with Christian.  

While I do enjoy my membership there, this is not a plug for the fitness center, but a true desire to recognize and honor this man who has helped me change myself for the better and put me on the path to Authentic Change and Transformation.  

In the words of my idol Tina Turner, Christian Bryan is "Simply The Best"!

When the Student is Ready the Teacher Appears

When we open ourselves to understanding, the lessons we seek appear.  Three years ago I started this blog with all the enthusiasm and excitement we love to give to new beginnings.  But in a very short time that energy seemed to die away, lost it seemed under the crush of everyday life.

It took me a couple of years to realize that what I thought was lost had actually been occurring in the background.  The mindfulness of change was missing, but the deep personal desire to grow was actively working at a level of unconsciousness. 

We think that once we decide to make changes in our lives they will happen immediately.  We think we will wake in the morning completely different, all the hard work done.  In truth, authentic change begins as a whisper in our souls.  Somewhere at the pit of our Being we begin to desire change and that creates change to small for us to measure.  Like the change of day to night or summer to fall, we don’t feel the movement of time until enough change has occurred to make us aware.  “Oh, wow, it’s getting dark, didn’t realize how late it was”, or “Weather is starting to cool lately, fall is on the way.” 

In the same way, we awaken within ourselves; realizing one day all the small changes that had been occurring preparing us for now.  As we change we grow and the levels of personal transformation we thought would be immediate begin to unfold within us.  One of my favorite quotes is:  “When the student is ready the teacher appears.”  We are truly students of life, on a journey to enlightenment.  When we open ourselves up to the knowledge, we realize that life is our teacher. 

We begin to see experiences differently as our “ah-ha” moments come more frequently.  We observe others doing the things we so desperately wish to change within ourselves and we are able to see, without judgement, what we need to do.  The teacher whispers to our soul and the message rises to our consciousness and changes us forever. 

Look at a flower.  It doesn’t shoot from the ground the moment we plant the seeds, No it first digs deep developing its roots so that as it emerges into the light it is strong and capable of receiving nourishment.  Slowly a tiny little leaf-like section becomes a bud, little by little growing and unfolding until the flower it was meant to be emerges. The caterpillar becomes the butterfly, tadpoles become frogs – all of life transforms.  I keep this in mind as I walk my life’s journey remembering that I have not just started to transform but I have been in the process of transformation every day of my life.

When I close my eyes in meditation and breathe deeply the teacher appears and I begin to uncover and discover my purpose and my path. So be okay with small victories and minute changes.  Walk your path with joy, knowing your teacher is present and each day whether you recognize it or not you are transforming. 

A Day for Changing Our Lives

I woke this morning filled with gratitude and thanks for all that is my life.  I am thankful for for everything and everybody in my life.  I am most thankful for the work I've been accomplishing on my SELF.   I have been working for years on my SELF.  I was lost.  I was lost in what I thought I should be doing - the grown up stuff of responsibility and serious application of oneself to important things.  I was not happy.  I could not understand why I was unable to reconcile my life and my dreams and find a way for them to blend as one.  I know I am not alone in my need and desire to be my authentic self.

We have all gone on the diet, started the gym, signed up for the French class, all for the purpose of creating the positive changes in our life we want to embrace.  But it was hard.  Friends, family, work, and our own attachment to Self-defeating habits, something always pulled us off purpose.

When I started keeping a journal about 25 years ago, I would periodically go back and read entries from the same date, but years before.  I realized I was stuck in a parttern of wanting, but not realizing, the change I so desired in my life. 

There was a positive side to these visits back in time as well.  Finding those entries where I promised myself I would change and I did.  Things that were hard like relocating to San Francisco, leaving Chicago for the first time in my life to venture into the unknown.  I go back and read how afraid and excited I was then.  Now 25 years later my life in San Francisco is authentic. 

That's what authentic change is about.  Making a change, living through the difficult first moments of experiencing a new habit, city, job....until it is familiar, natural, comfortable.  That is what we look for when we work to change ourSELVES.  Moving from the fear to the familiar.  Moving from unknown possibilities to a life of accomplishments.  This is a life process.  We are constantly evolving, growing and transforming.  Sometimes we make the process difficult by refusing to let go of the small behaviors that affect the bigger goal.  The process of authentic change forces us to look at all the pieces of our SELF.  Our attitudes, relationships with others and ourselves, our belief system, likes and dislikes every emotion we have falls under the microscope of change.

Authentic change requires us to dig deep and fully examine our lives and ourselves.  You can't paint a room without washing the walls, scrapping off the old paint and preparing it for the new.  You can't change your life with a blanket declaration to make a change without washing away the old believes, scrapping away hard to relinquish habits and preparing ourself for the change.

I am in the process of achieving authentic change and transforming my life. The last years have been difficult for me.  I thought my dreams have been deferred by the economic crisis, but I have learned a valuable lesson.  My dreams have been deferred by my belief that an economic crisis could stop them.

It's important for all of us to stop and take stock of where we are and what we what in our lives.  Work, family and other obligations can pull us from our dreams.  Time slips away and we gain weight, waking one morning to the realization that we are destroying our health.  OR, like I recently did, taking a job you HATE because is will help relieve some but not all of the financial pressure you're under.  We get so busy chasing a means to survive, we stop chasing the dream.  We are so business trying to live the way society thinks we should AND pursue our dream we wonder how the dream got lost.  Six in one hand, Half dozen in the other.  If either way you still have to figure out how to pay the rent, buy food and survive, then why not do it on the path to your dream?  

I am always encouraged by people who have successfully achieved authentic change.  The one trait they all have is the ability to focus on the goal.  They act as if they have already achieved the goal until its no longer acting but authentic. 

I decided to start this blog when it is exactly 100 days to my 56th birthday.  Fast forward 2 years years and its now 89 days until by 58th birthday.  I'm learned a lot, but the one thing I learned the most is I was trying to live my dream beside my life instead of as my life.  I felt that first I must establish an income and security then I can dream.  I have learned that my dream is my life as as long I as push it aside in pursuit of other things I will never be truly happy or fulfilled.  In the past two months I have been on the path of my dream.  I wake everyday and dedicated my life to my writing and my SELF then take on whatever work fits that schedule.  I've streamlined my material world and feel much freer living simply.  

I invite you to join me on this new "Journey of 100 days" to Authentic Change and Transformation.  Today we ACT and commit to the change we desire in our lives.  For the next 100 days we will focus on our goals.  Write down what you want to accomplish by March 16, 2013 and lets work together on our dreams.  I'm looking foward to hearing from you.  I'm looking forward to sharing with you. 

Happy Transformation!

"Things do not change, we change" Henry David Thoreau