43
I’m 43 years old today. Every year as a gift to myself I do something that forces me outside of my comfort zone; I call it my birthday scare. It’s kind of like a bucket list but instead of doing a ton of things and then dropping dead I do a few things and then eat cake. (Cake is awesome.)
This year I’m going to do three things.
- Learn the final dance from the movie Dirty Dancing
- Become a community organizer
- Audition to be a WWE Diva Wrestler
Why This Scares Me and Why I’m Doing It Anyway
Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing was my all-time favorite movie growing up. Not only did the bookish, do-gooder, socially awkward girl do the iconic lift at the end, she also helped people along the way, turned the bad-boy good, stood up for herself and others and blossomed into a strong young woman by the end of the movie. Also, she had some really hot scenes with Patrick Swayze.
The dance scares me because I’ve never done ballroom dancing and certainly have never done a lift, let alone in heels and at age 43. What if I can’t do the lift? What if I forget the steps? What if I just look really stiff and robotic? And did I mention that I tend to trip over my own feet?
I’m going to go for it anyway. That dance showed how powerful a woman could be if she put in hard work, let go of her fears and learned to trust herself and her partner. No one puts Baby in a corner! Or Lisa either.
Community Organizer
I remember reading in history class about peaceful protests and civil rights movements and wondering what I would do if I were in that situation. Would I get involved or stay safely silent?
The past few weeks I’ve gone through some extreme vetting of my morals and I’ve signed up for some training to be a community organizer.
My fear about getting involved is that I could get targeted and intimidated by online trolls. I’m also afraid of offending my friends.
I’m getting involved anyway. My true friends and I already know that even though we have different points of view we respect each other’s right to voice it. That’s one of the best parts about being American!
Don’t worry – this is a fitness blog so, other than this post, I’ll stick to healthy living themes and post my political views on my personal Facebook account. If you’re a Facebook friend, more to come…
WWE Diva Wrester Audition
I went to see John Cena wrestle for the first time a few months ago with my friend Serena. It seemed like it was a morality play (good guys versus bad guys) with fighting in between. The women wrestlers were called divas and they looked like they could beat up half the audience if they wanted to.
This challenge scares me because I’ve never wrestled before, I’m 43 and it seems like I need to create a character to play. Also, the amount of head shaking I’m likely to get directed my way makes it seem like a risky thing to do.
I’m going to do it anyway because I’ve been feeling so angry lately I think it would be liberating to jump off the ropes and pretend to break a chair on somebody. Plus it’s just so randomly out-of-character for me I think it would be ridiculously fun to try.
Those are my goals for my birthday scare. Just as an FYI – I give myself the entire year to complete the tasks. I’ll update you periodically.
Lisa 🙂
If you’re serious about getting healthy, but need help getting started, try my S.L.I. Method on my website ShesLosingIt.com. Only YOU can do the work, but I can give you the tools that I’ve learned over the past five years about nutrition, exercise and overcoming excuses.
Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two….and Original Cast Member of AMERICAN GRIT, starring John Cena, on FOX!!!
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