Why We Do What We Do...

I'll be honest, waking up and 4:00am on a consistent basis is beginning to wear on me. Need an example? Saturday, I slept in until 6:00am and REJOICED!!!! This morning was no different. I woke up at 4:00am, packed up my gear and lunch for the day, had a little breakfast, checked over the day's schedule again and prayed for the clients, meetings, and practice for the day (yes, at Integrity, we pray for all our clients daily) and then I was on my way an hour and a half later leaving my gorgeous wife to sleep in our nice and warm comfy bed for another hour. Thankfully, my attitude changed as I crossed the bridge from Wisconsin to Minnesota. I remembered why I'm up so early today.

Today, I started with training Paul and Vicki, a fun loving couple with two daughters. What I do as a trainer is helping to make sure that Paul walks each one of them down the aisle, helps to ensure that the weekend family hikes aren't ending anytime soon, and that they'll have plenty of energy to chase the grandkids around when that day comes.

Later this afternoon, I'll be putting my time and energy into coaching. Coaching takes up a TON of time and I guarantee that no high school coach is being paid what they're worth for the time and effort that they put in. Ask my wife, she'll give you a fifteen point sermon with references and footnotes. Fortunately, the image emblazoned on my mind comes from last night's JV game. On our team, we have quite a few players that have never played the game before, and Hayden is one of them. Hayden plays defensive end for us, and last night was a BALLER! Text book on squeezing down the line to break up the option, coming off the edge with hands in the air to disrupt the pass, and making plays in the backfield. The smile on his face after each big play he made was worth every ounce of effort put in away from my wife since June. Thanks to that smile, I'll have a renewed energy at practice today.

After practice today, I'll be training the Russian Twins. The Russian Twins are autistic and a blast to train! Honestly, they bring such a joy that I've been tempted with the idea of training autistic clients only! I've been working with the two of them for a few months now and they are certainly healthier and happier!

All in all, that's a long day but worth all the time to know how much we are helping people. And, I say "We" because building our business and the time put into coaching is definitely a team effort for Jess and me. To hear clients talk to me about how great they feel, to see a quiet and timid boy start to walk around like a confident young man, and to spend quality time weekly investing in those with special needs sure makes getting up at 4:00am easy.