It is hard to capture the affect someone can have on your life. Your encounters may have been brief, but the impact was lasting. I know someone like that. I was honored to know her.

I have had a few careers in my adult life. I work in data management now. Once upon a time I was an insurance adjuster and an office manager. Before that I slung pizza and sprayed yards. However, the job that started my career in the adult big leagues was as a music and youth pastor at a small church in Oklahoma City.

I was 20 years old when I took the job. I was two weeks from getting married to the love of my life and figured I needed to be gainfully employed if I was going to be successful as a husband. So, when the church offered me the position I was ready and eager.

Let’s be honest here, I had no idea what I was doing. It was all on the job training. I did not know that I was about to undergo one of the greatest learning curves of my life. I held on as tight as I could for a bumpy ride.

I wasn’t without help. Here enters one of the many wonderful people that helped me along my way, Bonnie – the most awesome church secretary.

It is always easier to do a job when you know you have people on your side. Every time I walked into the office Bonnie greeted me warmly. She showed care and concern. She helped show me the ropes. She made the atmosphere brighter because of who she was.

I could say many things about Bonnie. I admired her work at the church. She did what she did with excellence. She stood up for what she believed in. She made people feel welcome, including me. (She was also camp cook for both summers we took teenagers to camp! Good food!!)

She also gave me a great gift. I have had the honor for over 23 years of calling Bonnie’s son one of my best friends. We have been through a lot of life together and I am beyond grateful.

Bonnie passed away last Thursday. She had lived a long full life and was tired and ready to join her husband in Heaven. She is now free of pain and in a place that I look forward to one day being, with Jesus.

We will celebrate her tomorrow at her service. I am so thankful for her life and her impact on me. Her influence has been one of the factors that has helped me be who I am today. I am thankful for her and for the friendships/family I have because of her. She will be missed.

I said it before in a previous post, but it bears repeating…I love words. I love uncovering the meaning in them.

What word am I thinking about today? Agency.

What does this word mean?

We all know the common definition. A business that transacts agreements between two or mor parties. Think insurance agency. This is not what I am after.

The next definition states – a thing or person that acts to produce a particular result.

We have agency. We have the ability inside us to decide what results we want to see and then go after it. It may not seem like we have it, but we do.

This 100 days is not starting out as well as the last one did. I feel sluggish. I have hit a weight loss wall. It feels like I won’t hit any more of the goals I have set out for myself. That is how it “feels”.

Then I remember that I have agency. I have the ability to determine a particular result and go after my with a ferocious intensity. That power to choose is mine. Sluggish or not, there are things to be done. Goals to be achieved.

It is time to keep moving forward. I made the choice. Now it is time to follow through.

I was in some pretty awesome habit patterns last year. For 100 days between September 12 and December 21, I had it going on and I made a lot of progress towards my goals.

Then comes Christmas. I admit, I’d did better over the Christmas holiday than ever before. Sure, I ate what I wanted and I enjoyed myself. However, I didn’t go completely crazy, which I have done in years past.

However, getting back to accomplishing my daily tasks has not been as easy as I would have liked. You give yourself an inch and you end up giving a mile. Getting back in the groove has been hard.

Today is day 3. I was able to cross my tasks off the list. That part was good. I ate more than I should have, that was the bad part. So, tomorrow I will knuckle back down and stay within calories.

I saw a video earlier that made me smile. In the video a man was out running in the cold rain. He admitted he didn’t want to be there. There were many other thing he would rather be doing. But, he told himself he was going to do it. He went running because he is a man of his word.

I am going to keep going on my 100 Day Strong journey because I am a man of my word. I said I was going to do it again and I will.

I watched a video by David Goggins. He is one of, if not the, fittest man on earth. He knows a thing or two about achieving. Here is a paraphrase of what he said:

Do something that sucks every day. Do it even if you don’t want to. It builds mental callouses and makes you tough.

He was referring to working out or learning or any other hard task that makes you improve. We have to do the hard things that don’t come easy. We have to embrace the things that suck.

That hit a chord with me. While working out every day is t necessarily hard, there are many days I don’t want to. I have to do it anyway.

There are many days I don’t want to mark the things off my list. I have to do them anyway. I told myself I would. Now, I have to keep my word.

Day 2 is in the books. On to day 3. #motivation #100DaysStrong #fitness #golas

I think it is time to call DO OVER! Yep. I am big enough to admit that I need to start again. Why you ask? Let me explain.

The next round of 100 Days Strong was supposed to start on January 1. I was doing good, but hit a snag. My wedding anniversary was on the 9th and we went out of town for a few days. I totally enjoyed the time away and didn’t follow the plan. So, I am calling a mulligan.

Today was Day 1 of Round 2 of my 100 Days Strong journey. It was a good day. I got back on track and worked through the list. That felt very good.

I don’t have a problem calling a mulligan. However, it is now time to buckle down and do it right. The goal is April 22, 2023. Let’s do this.