I don’t need to lose weight this year

               

                This is one resolution I don’t need to put on my list this year. I have lost 44 lbs since this time last year. When I do my workouts in the morning it doesn’t take much effort. I no longer have that dread when I get out of bed in the morning. Part of me wants to do more but I have over done it many times and I don’t want to go backwards but I do feel a desire to take on a physical challenge or utilize my enhanced conditioning towards something meaningful.

                I do have my Trail Life boys. I think back on other young boys I have influenced over the years. I remember Roy Jones Jr. trying to keep up with me doing arm circles, push-ups and leg lifts. Then before you know it, he surpassed me. Then I ran into Jonathan, I used to train him and his best friend Ryan McDonald in boxing before I went to BUD/s training in class 141. I was in Panama and working out on the heavy bag in my garage and this Marine PFC stopped at my house on the way to his guard station and it was him. Then when I went to Free Fall Jump Master School in Fort Bragg North Carolina we got a four day weekend for Veteran’s day and I went to Virginia Beach and worked out with SEAL Team Eight and this tall red headed kid comes up to me and it was Shane Riley, he was a kid who hung out by the pool when I was a life guard getting ready to go to BUD/s in class 133. I trained him in boxing a few times. There were others whom I might have had influence with that make me proud seeing how they turned out.

                I can’t take much credit, I wasn’t there directing them or counseling them to get where they are today but there is one who I know for sure that I have influence in his life and that is my son Devin. There are so many examples I can think of where his character was developing. In the boxing ring at 10 years old sparring with 14 year olds and he was looking for me to intervene and I refused and told the older boy sparring with him “Go ahead and knock him out. Put him to sleep and make it easy on him.” I didn’t realize it but that older boy eased up on him and Devin stepped it up and the same time (Which is what my intent was) and the tide turned. After that Devin always assumed that it was within his power to take matters into his own hands and turn things around. As a Junior life guard he would get all excited when the instructors made the do push-ups. Now he is one of the top performers for Tesla Solar in San Diego and he calls me all of the time giving e his sales progress report.

                I had one of the pastors at the church tell me that I need to be who God wants me to be, not what anyone else wants me to be. When I become what God wants me to be, it will be enough for those that I want it to matter with. He was going over our gifts, mine were service and faith but I had taken his survey before and Teaching also came up as one of my gifts. I like teaching. I earned the designation as a Master Training Specialist in the Navy and it was awarded to me while I was going through BUD/s training in class 141. Mike Bixler had me in front of the whole class, standing on the tables in parade rest with my head against the wall. I thought I was in trouble and then he made a big speech and awarded me the certificate.

                Every time I have mentored young men, they always surpass me. It is funny how that makes me feel good.