Managing Elephants

I am reading a book about diversity, inclusion, and leadership in the workplace by Stephen Young titled Micromessaging: Why Great Leadership is Beyond Words.” One of my favorite quotes from the book is “We’re managing the elephants as the ants walk by. We are being overrun by millions of ants.” Stephen Young was referring to managing big issues while we are being overrun by the small ones, but it caused me to stop and think, “How am I managing the elephant of PD while I am letting the ants of interpersonal relationships, work relationships, the millions of small, but very important and beautiful things that exist in life pass me by each day?” That was a hugely sobering moment for me.

Regardless of the struggles an individual may face; disease, loss, tragedy, one can suddenly find that they are having to manage the elephant that they are facing. The sad part is we can focus so hard on those elephants, even though the disease may be incurable, or we cannot reverse the tragedy, or we cannot bring a lost one back, we make that our extreme focus. The sad part, the “ants”, those who love us, those who support us, those who we build friendships and relationships with, our children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren, the sunny days, the lighthearted laughs, the fun days, the playing in the rain, and so on just pass us by and overrun us. I know that was happening to me.

Trust me, I read another book titled “Parkinson’s Regeneration Training” when an average contributor to the book wrote, “I don’t want to live in a world where I am shaken by Parkinson’s. I want to shake up the world where I live in spite of Parkinson’s.” As of my last writing, I have been blessed to become a mill manager in a successful company and enjoy my off time on the farm. I am glad to have found that quote by the contributor I was talking about in the PD book; I was glad to find me again. Have a beautiful day managing the ants. 🙂

Pay the Rent

I haven’t written in a couple of years, not because I didn’t have time; I just didn’t. This is not a search for advice, pity, or even approval. Just a new start. I was working hard to use my PD to try and help others thinking in some way that it may help me fight my own progression better. It didn’t. Faith didn’t help. Friends and family who supported me didn’t Help. I made some pretty different choices, started drinking heavily, distancing myself from others, not taking my meds regularly, giving up gym time and taking care of myself, damaging and even destroying relationships with friends and family that probably won’t ever be repaired, speaking inappropriately to others, and living in a self-centered way that only allowed me to care about me; here is a bigger admission: I am still fighting it. I battle heavy depression, periods of euphoric highs, watch this disease continue to advance, face each day without much regard to whether or not I have another; I realistically don’t care either way most days. I know that I will lose this fight one day. I understand the place that people like Robin Williams reached; the future is bleak, and to lose yourself is a terrible place to be; you become apathetic. Those are simply statements of who the person behind the smiles and jokes about being Slim Shaky and being the loud and funny guy at parties is.

A lot of good things have happened. I went back to work at the wood products company I worked with before and have been given the opportunity to be a highly successful Operations Manager. My son has become engaged. My daughter and her husband are doing well; being a dad is great. Grand kids are growing up healthy. I am part of an amazing motorcycle club that I worked hard to become a part of and experience a brotherhood that you could never understand unless you were part of it. I have an awesome motorcycle and I still survive each day as best I can. I have some new killer tattoos as well. I have committed to getting back to the gym and eat better to lose some unhealthy weight I have gained. I find new reasons each day to go one more day in this fight. Now, I think I will write again. Some folks were encouraged by my words. It did heal me at times to know that.

Keep in mind, I am nobody special; everyone has something they carry, internal struggles that affect their very souls. In the last couple of months though, I have realized that success, living each day, making it to the next, in the midst of the hardest struggles, that is life. It is one day at a time; one step after the other, and we owe it to ourselves to live each of those days. One of my favorite new tattoos is a quote: “Success is never owned, it is rented and the rent is due every day.” You owe it to yourself to pay that rent each day. Thanks, if you are reading this, and I hope it helps at least one who does read it. Until the next time. – JC

Life’s A Garden

Life’s a garden; dig it. I love those immortal words from the movie Joe Dirt. The whole line in that interview with Joe Dirt went like this: “You gotta keep goin’. What am I gonna’ do, quit? That’s not an option. You gotta’ keep on keepin’ on. Life’s a garden, dig it. You gotta’ make it work for you. You never give up man; that’s my philosophy.” Some of the best advice for our lives actually came out of Joe Dirt’s life story. I have to admit that I may have some struggles, but my parents never abandoned me at the Grand Canyon and the top of my skull did form, although I am bald and I have considered the mullet wig a time or two. But the crazy thing is that we all have struggles, and we all have hit that point of just feeling like “What’s the use?” or “ I am tired of the struggle, so I quit.” I love how Joe Dirt looked at all of the things in his life that did not go like he had planned, but in his own way, he found life was a garden that just required some effort to make it produce some good for him, regardless of the weeds.

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but my struggle is Parkinson’s (may be a first time reader out there, so just keeping them in the loop). That doesn’t make me special or make my measure of struggle any greater than anyone else’s struggles. I don’t walk in their shoes, so I cannot possibly know. It is an awful blow to be dealt to hear your doctor award you with the prize of PD, and give you some prescriptions and bleak educational material about how you suffer from a degenerative disease with no cure, and tell you to come back in a few months to see how “things are going.” I am sure many of you can identify with similar diseases or loss of a career or loss of a loved one or any number of things that do not have a very positive outlook for the future.  Things suddenly pile up across from you, and you feel defeated, beaten down into your very spirit. You feel like the world borrowed another line from that same movie:”Maybe we’ll go to McDonald’s and get you a waaaah burger and some French cries.” You feel no one understands, no one cares, you have hit your bottom, and you just want to take your ball and go home and not play life anymore.

Well, follow Joe’s advice. “You gotta’ keep on keepin’ on.” I had to dig my garden and make it work for me, so I planted seeds of biking, writing, OCR racing, exercise, starting a support group, encouraging others with PD and other struggles, becoming a voice for Parkinson’s, sharing my story, drawing attention to PD, and being active in the fight against my disease. I started working the empty soil of hopelessness and sadness of Parkinson’s, adding in the fertilizer of thankfulness and feeling blessed and faith and family and friendships and laughter and humor. I have to work every day weeding out apathy and self-absorption and selfishness and pain and fatigue and depression, and water that soil and those seeds with motivation and serving others and compassion and love for others and life. And you know what? I keep going; I don’t quit. I am able to harvest joy and happiness and inspiration for myself and others. I find that my garden produces kindness and support for others and in the end, the amazing bloom of hope; hope in a life that is full, regardless of the struggles I face, and a life that is blessed because I have another day to impact at least one person’s life in a positive way.

So remember Joe Dirt, and remember that I believe this too; “You never give up man; that’s my philosophy.” Also remember his advice “if you’re covered in oil, don’t stand next to a fire.” That may be helpful if you are lighting some spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, or whistlin’ kitty chasers.

#livelikeawarrior #noquit #justbe #fit_four #bike2live #fitforlife #50fit #gymlife #davisphinney #davisphinneyfoundation #apda #warriordash #spartanrace #parkinstand #cyclepathsmonroeville #parkinsonsregenerationtraining #ocr #stjudeswarrior #mudrunguide #spartanlife #deltadash #foxfoundation #moveforpd #parkinsonassociationofalabama #victorymoments #livewellwithpd #teamfox

AROO, PD, AROO

I am excited to report that I ran my first official mud run/obstacle course; the Delta Dash. It was a challenging 5K through some nasty, smelly mud, some crazy terrain changes, and some pretty serious obstacles. At the point I started the race. I had planned on using this race as a race to prepare me for the Warrior Dash, which I run in just a couple of weeks. At the point I finished the race, I had the realization that this was in fact not a training race at all, but rather a race deserving of its own respect for the challenges in it. I learned that it is wrong to underestimate your opponent in OCR and Mud Run racing: the course itself.

You see, I am honestly not competing with anyone but myself. I believe that in the back of my mind I want to beat this person or that person, but honestly, I just want to finish safely. In this race, I did learn that you have to plan really well when you are packing Parkinson’s disease. About halfway through the course, I experienced “wearing off” in a significant way. Wearing off is when your carbidopa/levodopa no longer works. Here’s the drawback; the focused movements that you relied on to scale walls and other obstacles, the balance that you used moving through changing terrain, the mental focus you needed to just get one foot moving in front of the other, and the drive to keep moving suddenly spilled out of me.  It was at that point I could have stopped, asked for assistance, and been carted off the course in a mud buggy. But that day, I could not accept that.

Halfway across the country, a friend was running the Spartan World Championship in Lake Tahoe. He had spent the entire week encouraging me, helping me to realize that I was not running a little race at all, but pushing myself to be so much more in spite of Parkinson’s. I was amazed and inspired by him running in the Spartan, and humbly he said that he drew inspiration and encouragement from my run. He told me I was running for much more than the Delta Dash, running for much more than finishing, but instead that I was running to make an impact; an impact in my life, and many lives that were being encouraged by the fact that I was running to defeat PD in my life. He told me that I was an incredible individual for stepping into this arena. He had already been encouraging me and coaching me as I have prepared for the Warrior Dash and have been able to raise over half my goal for St. Jude Children’s Hospital that I will run on October 21^st. But this week was different; this day was different.

Running with me was an amazing team of family members and coworkers who ran to show their support of me running with Parkinson’s. I heard them say that if I could run at my age with Parkinson’s, then they really had no excuse. I watched as we worked together to get every member through that course, over obstacles that were scary or difficult, but all finished the race. In the end, we were exhausted, filthy, smelled awful, and a little banged up. But what I saw through the muddy faces were the most beautiful smiles and laughter. We had accomplished something bigger together. That day, my other friend Christian finished his Spartan World Championship, and I was proud for him as he is a PD fighter as well. His family was so proud of him as he crossed the finish line. I would imagine the whole experience was exhausting and surreal for him. I think he is still smiling.

I woke up Sunday morning, and my Parkinson’s hadn’t gone away. I still struggled to get out of bed, even more this day because I was a little stiffer, and banged up. I still had tremors, still had to take medicine, still had a masked expression, and shuffled around until my medicine took effect. I still hated PD, but as I looked in the mirror that day, I was even more thankful for my new perspective. For a moment, I had defeated Parkinson’s; it is a daily fight. That Monday, as I started back in the gym to prepare for the Warrior Dash, I signed up for my first Spartan Sprint in April of 2018. I told my buddy Christian I was going to pursue my first Trifecta in 2018. I said it is no longer about wanting, but now about doing. He told me he would be there to encourage me along the way, and then ended his message with one word. AROO. I think my Parkinson’s is about to have a tough year. AROO, PD, AROO indeed.

I Stand for the Flag and Anthem

Normally, I try to avoid political conversations and try to opt for more positive and encouraging conversations. However, today, I have to share something that has been weighing in on me for a while, and was really reinforced by the actions of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and really just one gentleman in particular, Alejandro Villanueva, a U. S. Army veteran and player who, in spite of the rest of his team boycotting the National Anthem, came out and placed his hand over his heart and paid respect to his country and his flag. As a decorated US Army combat veteran myself, I applaud him for his courage to make a stand. As an American citizen, I stand and do the same each time the anthem is played or the colors are raised or retired. For me, it is a given; I am thankful to wake up each day in what I consider the greatest nation in our world. I speak today as both a citizen and an Army veteran.

There are many out there who would instantly take offense to that, many who were born and raised right here in the United States. That’s okay because one key word lets you have the opportunity to take offense and speak out against my statement: freedom. You live in a country of freedom, not oppression. You live in a country with rights, not tyranny. It strikes me as odd that the very government that you protest as oppressive or divisive actually takes extreme steps to provide you the freedom to demonstrate and say so. Actually almost seems like an oxymoron to me.

First of all, I really am not being a political advocate for one side or the other; I honestly think that given most days, it really doesn’t matter if you are Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, white, Latino, African-American, oriental, male or female, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, or Jewish, we have to realize we are all human beings, deserving of respect and fair treatment. Second, I do not consider oppression as an adequate description of what happens on a daily basis in the United States. By definition, oppression is prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control. I do not think the Colin Kaepernick’s of this world understand oppression. I have been called blind or accused of turning a blind eye to what happens here in the United States, which is, in all actuality, an unfair generalization. I could likely say “I am sorry sir, but it is your sense of entitlement that makes you blind to reality.”

If our country truly oppressed people, I would have to say that there are on average about 680,000 people annually who have absolutely lost their minds because they complete the citizenship process in order to pursue a life outside of nations where they are truly oppressed. Last year alone, the United States also resettled nearly 85,000 refugees who were seeking asylum from governments and countries that were actually oppressive. For those of you who would call the United States oppressive, try protesting your government under the flag of China. Try pressing women’s rights under the flag of Afghanistan. Try electing a government free from family or patriarchal rule under the flag of Saudi Arabia. Try receiving a fair trial and humane punishment in prison under the flag of Mexico. Try practicing religious freedom under the flag of ISIS. Try marrying someone of another race or nationality under the flag of Egypt. Try watching what you choose on television or living where you like or working in your career of choice under the flag of North Korea.

All of this is to say that we are not oppressed in this country. There are bad things that happen, and certainly unfair treatment and disparities that do occur, but oppression, no. With that, the act of kneeling for the national anthem and the presentation of colors is disrespectful, and really not protest nor a means to bring about dialogue, but instead a divisive method used by people who really do not understand and are unwilling to offer their lives to protect the very freedoms that they complain about.

I may lose a few readers for what I have shared today, I am okay with that. But I just had to say that I feel that people who protest in this fashion honestly disrespect the men and women who wear that same flag on their sleeve engaging enemy forces who wish to take away your freedoms, who see that same flag flying over a fire base that is a remote safe haven that they call home in the hopes of making it back to their real home, and who place their hand on that flag as it is draped over their fallen brother’s or sister’s casket as they say their last painful goodbye. No, you are not oppressed, and no, your form of protest is not effective, but instead a distasteful display of someone who has a high sense of entitlement without any desire to sacrifice what is necessary for true freedom. God bless America.

#justbe #livelikeawarrior #noquit #goarmy #usa

The Real Slim Shaky

In 2000, Marshall Bruce Mathers III, aka Eminem, recorded the song “The Real Slim Shady” which included the lyrics “won’t the real Slim Shady please stand up.” Now I am gonna just set that right there in your bran and let that marinate a bit as that song gets recalled and stuck in repeat mode and you start moving your head rhythmically. I know; I have not written since June, It has been one busy summer with school and work, and of course being that superhero known as PD Super Fighter Hero Guy. Ok, that was ridiculous, but I thought it was funny. I did have some classes to finish up, and the summer semester in our community college was a busy time for me as a student advisor. I managed to do some bike riding and finished a 37-mile ride for a local charity, and have since fixed my training focus to running the Delta Dash in September, a small local mud run, and of course the Warrior Dash in October, a huge OCR/mud run for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Google it sometime; I think PD has stolen my sanity. A friend of mine asked me if was aiming to win; I simply said that I was hoping to not use my health insurance card that day. But enough about that craziness.

I have had the opportunity since writing in June to be featured in a web based interview series with Karl Sterling of Parkinson’s Regeneration Training. Karl did a great job of letting me tell my story and publishing it to the web, and I received a ton of positive feedback and encouragement; Karl is definitely a new friend. I was able to connect with some amazing people like Cindey and Pat Donahoo of the Davis Phinney Foundation, John Humphreys who is affiliated with Emory University and the MJ Fox Foundation, Omotola Thomas of the #parkinstand movement, and Jimmy Choi of the American Ninja Warrior competition. I certainly met a whole bunch of other special people out there fighting just like me. I thought wow, what can I do with this push of positive people and energy? I had huge thoughts and crazy goals running through my mind, but one of my best buds out there in the PD world, Christian Banda, encouraged me to focus on others, to stay true to what my blog was about, helping others and encouraging others through their struggles, and to most importantly stay true to my values. See, the cool part about Christian is he is a PD fighter, but this guy fights on the beast level, like Godzilla or King Kong style or something. He runs Spartan Trifectas and is running in the Spartan World Championship race in Lake Tahoe this year and has an incredible PD fighter story. But when you ask him why does what he does, it is really a pretty humble reply; to fight PD and to be a voice so others can be helped. You ask any of the other people I mentioned, you will get a similar answer. They are all “standing up” in the fight against PD, and when I have those days where I am unmotivated, I just go out and find one of them on the internet, and I get inspired; you should too.

Following Christian’s direction, and my values, I decided to impact my world, my community, by starting a PD support group called Shaking Up LA (Lower Alabama). I have found great support from the Parkinson’s Association of Alabama, and we will have our first meeting next month. And that brings me back to the song by Eminem that has been going through your head since you recalled those lyrics. I was in the gym and actually heard that song, and of course, having a jiggidy  brain, I started laughing and said “I am the Real Slim Shaky, and I am standing up as a voice for Parkinson’s.” Now naturally, I couldn’t just stop there, so I had a really cool guy named Denny Giles (shalloWit design) worked me up some t-shirts for a fundraiser, and guess what, we are selling Slim Shaky t-shirts  as a fundraiser for the PAA (yeah, you need one, go check it out on Facebook).  But you know, my point in all of this is not to tell you about a bunch of really cool people, although I do think you would be inspired by them if you checked them out on Facebook. My point is not to tell you about our super awesome superhero PD fighting group like the one we started in lower Alabama or selling the coolest t-shirts you will ever own. Nope, my point is to encourage you by sharing how one guy from a small town in Alabama fighting a degenerative disorder is “standing up” and being a voice, being a fighter for others, and being an encouragement in a world faced with so much of the opposite. We have heard stories like this many times in history, and we are all amazed by them, but how many times do we think that we can do that very same thing?

Regardless of the challenges you may face, the one simple act of “standing up” to make a difference or make an impact in someone else’s struggle will leave you amazed at what you are able to accomplish in spite of your challenges. I used a phrase in another blog way back that I have sort of coined, and it goes like this: I don’t want to live in a world where I am shaken by Parkinson’s, but instead I want to shake up the world where I live in spite of Parkinson’s. Stand up and be amazed, even shocked. Not shocked like when you found out spoons don’t really make airplane noises, and not amazed like when you realize Wal Mart really is a one stop shop where you can eat at a fast food restaurant, get your haircut, open a checking account, get your glasses, get new tires and a car service, do your grocery and back to school shopping, get your prescriptions, and most importantly, get some serious training on what not to wear in public places. No, I mean amazed and shocked at how suddenly a huge world full of different people struggling every day suddenly is not so big and different, and the problems and struggles that we overwhelmingly face become more manageable by the simple act of standing up and being a voice and supporting someone else in their struggle. So, sort of in the words of Eminem, will the Real Slim Shaky please stand up, do more than get the remote or go to the bathroom,  be a voice, and make a difference today?

#noquit #justbe #bike2live #fitforlife #50fit #gymlife #move4pd  #parkinsons #cyclepaths #campsam #nevergiveup #keeppushing #teamultimatefitness #physiochainseducation #parkinsonsregenerationtraining #parkinstand #warriordash #stjudeswarrior #helmetsup #warriornation #mudrunguide #parkinsonslife #ocr #mudrunner

https://justbejcarmichael.wordpress.com/

I Positive I Am Not Negative

I was talking with someone through social media who said that they found my blog to be “inspiring”. I thought that was an incredible compliment because I don’t really think about inspiring someone; I am just John. I just try to be positive when everything inside of me may be trying to make me negative. I actually took a few minutes and looked up inspiring, and it was defined as “having the effect of inspiring someone.” Ok, Dictionary.com, thanks. I then looked up inspire and I was like “Wow; someone thinks that about my words?” I saw words like “to fill with exalting influence” and “to fill or affect with specified thought or action.” I also saw “to inhale”, and honestly, sighing may use inspiration, so maybe I am that kind of inspiration; I make people sigh. Seriously though, I was humbled by that, and by many other people who have shared that they have found some encouragement in my words.

I am hanging tough a little over a year since my Parkinson’s diagnosis and I have been exercising hard, reading and studying hard, focusing hard, maintaining my meds hard, struggling through each day hard, and the one thing I have figured out is that Parkinson’s is hard work. It can be mentally and physically draining, and the single highest non-motor symptom of PD is depression, and that is a big battle daily. My symptoms fluctuate, and some of my days make me sit on the bedside and say “Really? Today it has to be like this, really?” I know LIFE is a job every day, and I would imagine that any struggle creates tiring work for anyone who is struggling with whatever it is that they face, so I am not saying that PD has that market cornered; my perspective is PD, but I bet it applies anywhere if you think it through. But just like there is no angry way to say the word bubbles, I simply cannot accept the fact that my struggle of PD is going to negatively define me.

I define my PD as an opportunity; an opportunity to improve myself, an opportunity to encourage others, and an opportunity to rise above a struggle. My PD gives me the ability to be truly grateful for each day that I get up and walk and dress myself and feed myself. That way, I am focused on where I am headed rather than the disease I have. I read somewhere that if you change the way you look at the things, the things you look at will change. I also read that if at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving probably isn’t for you. I am not some super hero (although I have been known to wear a Batman costume in public) or have some special gift for facing struggles; I get tired, I get depressed, I get angry, I get sad. I am not special at all, but I do tell myself I am a limited edition. If someone calls me crazy, I get down of my unicorn and slap them silly. I realize I may be a potato now, but one day, when I turn into fries, I will be amazing. I realize that it is ok for me to eat cake because it is somebody’s birthday, somewhere.  If I fall down the stairs, I think positively and tell myself to look at how quickly I got to the bottom. Just like celery is 95% water and 100% not pepperoni pizza, Parkinson’s is 95% a life changing struggle, but 100% not controlling me.

I honestly don’t know the struggle of many of the readers of my blog, and truthfully, probably not for most of the people that I encounter each day, but I can honestly say that each of you are my inspiration. You inspire me to be better, to act more kindly, to laugh out loud, to offer smiles and hugs, and to live my life as fully as I can, all in the hopes of maybe encouraging you in some small way. We are all family, related by the commonality of being human beings. Living our lives fully and for other people; that should define us. Maybe the world would be a better place. Maybe we would have a world where the chicken could cross the road and no one would question motive. And maybe when people ask me what I do, and I answer “whatever it takes”, they become driven as well to make their own little part of the world better.  By the way, don’t take life too seriously. If you can’t laugh at yourself, call me. I promise I will laugh at you.

#noquit #justbe #bike2live  #fitforlife #50fit #gymlife #litwithin #move4PD #teamfox #parkinsons #cyclepaths #campsam #nevergiveup #keeppushing #teamultimatefitness

 

Link to this blog: justbejcarmichael

Bread Tanning

I love this meme. “Dude, toasters are like tanning beds for bread.” The thing that sometimes catches me a little off guard is that I laugh, but then follow that up with “but that is really kind of the truth.” Since writing my last blog, I have one more final exam and I will be finished with the spring semester of classes. I thoroughly enjoyed both classes, and I was able to spend a lot of time learning more about myself and what my core values are through participation in my Ethics and Society class. I am looking forward to public speaking class in the summer and a microbiology class in the fall to round out my general education classes for my RN degree. That will be when the stress kicks in; core classes.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that it will be ok; I just have to focus and study and balance work and school and family life. Thousands of people do it every day. I don’t even feel extra special because I carry Parkinson’s to that table either; lots of people overcome adversity to pursue their dreams, and some of those adversities are way bigger than mine.  As a side note, people have told me that they are proud of me for going back to school while struggling through PD and that they admire my courage, but I am really not any more special than anyone else. I kindly thank them, but know that they are as special as I am because they took the time to encourage me. So what is stressing me so much?

First, it is this tremendous pressure I put on myself to not just be successful, but to be the best. My competitive nature pushes me to work harder, train harder, to keep looking for bigger competitive activities, and second best is not an acceptable effort for me. I often wear out the quote that Ricky Bobby’s dad used: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”  Now please don’t visit the later part in the movie where he said he was high when he said it and that the quote didn’t make any since because there is second place, third place, and so on.  In school, I strive for the A. The problem is that sacrifice comes with that, and at a point in my life when I am realizing that so many more things and people hold tremendous value in my life (yeah, those neuro disorder diagnoses with lifelong implications change your perspective), what am I willing to let be sacrificed for being the best in school? Is second place ok? How about third? I once heard a student remark that the “C” nurse gets paid the same as the “A” nurse; the only thing that matters is the license. But if I am the patient, the question I have to ask is “am I ok with the “C” nurse?”

But the other stress comes in when I consider second or third place being ok (and trust me, it really is). My other stress though is saying to myself that my PD gave me a different perspective and my PD also gives me specific challenges for school and my PD, has made me accept second or third, or may even be the reason I can’t be first. A lot of well-intending people would agree with me, and even tell me that I was courageous for even trying. Nope, sorry, PD is not going to get that satisfaction. Many of you know that I rode in a bike ride that was 30 miles for children’s cancer (at least if you have ever read my blog). Crazy thing is, I wasn’t the first or second or even the third finisher. But the great thing was that I was a finisher, a finisher without walking, a finisher without regret, and a finisher with PD. But the very best thing was that I rode a ride for children’s cancer, for a camp that gives hope to so many children, a camp named Smile-A-Mile, and for that, I gave my complete best and can accept that. The catch is now I want to ride more and ride longer distances and have started spending more money on a bike, jersey’s equipment, etc. Oh well, it’s all for a good cause, right? And not to mention the extensive studies done on biking and the benefits it has for PD.

So realizing that, my measurement for being the best really doesn’t rely on first or second or even 7^th; my measurement for being the best is knowing that I put forth all of the effort and heart I had to accomplish something, regardless of excuses or diseases or reasons why I should not have been able to, and that I finished. Period. I finished, and left my heart in whatever I was trying to accomplish. So no matter what you set out to do, be sure you use the right measurement for being the top finisher. Don’t believe me? Check out folks like Christian Banda IG @bandabuilt and Allie Topperwein IG @litwithindotcom and scores of others who are doing just that. Impact your crazy little world with your touch of craziness, and give it your best! And definitely apply sunscreen to the sensitive areas of your bread slices before you subject them to the toaster. Tanning beds can damage the crust.

#noquit #justbe #bike2live  #fitforlife #50fit #gymlife #litwithin #move4PD #teamfox #parkinsons #cyclepaths #campsam #nevergiveup #keeppushing

https://justbejcarmichael.wordpress.com/

Bombdiggity

If you are like most people who are either right-handed or left-handed, have you ever really considered how weird it is that you have one hand that easily knows exactly what to do, and then you have this other hand that is just hanging around like “uh, I don’t even know how to hold a pencil”? Think about when you talk using your phone. Do you have a preferred ear? Does it seem awkward to change and use the other ear? Do you have other activities you do each day that you perform the same way each time without even thinking about it, like putting on pants (which leg is first) or putting on shoes (which shoe is first)? Most folks would agree when I say it is simply habit.

Dictionary.com defines habit as “an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.” We all have habits, and habits can be good, bad, or even neutral, such as writing, but one thing is for sure, they can be hard to change. When I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, some of my ‘habits’ around eating, thinking, and especially activity and exercise were not ready to hear that I had Parkinson’s and that an active lifestyle, different thinking, and changes in diet would help me at least slow the progression of the disease, and maybe lessen the severity of the symptoms.  In all actuality, many of my ‘habits’ weren’t really healthy both physically and emotionally for day to day living as a ‘normal’ person.

Funny thing is that PD or any other life changing disease, sudden disability or loss of function, or even loss of loved ones that you depend on can suddenly make reevaluation of your ‘habits’ necessary to survive, and to grow in the process. For me, it was recognizing that “ok” is just another term for mediocre, and I needed to reframe both my lifestyle and mind against a backdrop of excellence, not mediocrity. Aristotle said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” My new ‘habits’, my future, my whole life,  had to be reframed against excellence. For me, it became bicycling and spending time in the gym and slowly changing the way I eat. It especially became about removing self-defeating and negative thoughts concerning Parkinson’s, and deciding that my life would be defined not by a disease, but by a design that moves me to strive for excellence.

I took small steps at first, wondering how much time I could gain by replying to text messages with “k” instead of “ok” (nah, just kidding). I honestly quit talking, and just started doing. I have been encouraged by those around me, and others who are huge competitors in Spartan Races (@bandabuilt) and Ninja Warrior competitions (@litwithin), all while fighting PD. I have been blessed with great friends and a wonderful family. I even named my dog five miles just so I wouldn’t be lying when I said I walked five miles every day (just kidding, I don’t have a dog). Through it all, I can honestly say that the greatest thing I did was take one step towards excellence, and begin to make excellence my new ‘habit’ for life. Period. Nothing less. Many people live, afraid of dying. When I die, I want to know that I truly lived. Let me encourage you to do the same. Be excellent from now on. Oh yeah, you come hang out with me at the corner of awesome and bombdiggity when you start those new ‘habits’. BTW, school is going great; I am a straight A ‘nerd’ lol.

 

#noquit #justbe #bike2live  #fitforlife #gymlife #50fit #litwithin #move4PD #teamfox #parkinsons

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