My wife, Lyn, thought I should get more exercise. I went along with the idea, after all, I was 70. Kerry interviewed me. I told him I was in pretty good shape. To justify and embellish that assessment I explained Lyn and I did a lot of gardening (bending over digging holes, reaching up cutting tree limbs and the like) and I walked extensively on the East Side and I daily walked our dog. Reluctantly I, also, confessed to him a vulnerability: I had lower back pain (because of curvature of my spine) since I was 20. Kerry was patiently diplomatic: he listened, occasionally asking a question or two. Then the workout began. Suddenly, Breaking News, I was not in “pretty good shape”. Yet Kerry praised me at the end of each workout, never letting on what he really must have thought of my assessment of being in “pretty good shape”. While driving home during those first few months of workouts and trying to block from my mind that within 36 hours I would feel sore muscles, I found myself humming Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry Be Happy. I mainly was pondering the Don’t Worry part.
Not much later, I switched my focus to the Be Happy part. I became just that, happy. My one vulnerability that I accepted as my fate – lower back pain – was no longer. 212 took on a different meaning altogether. It was more than a gym one went to a few times a week. Kerry and his team were invested in my progress. I felt different and I saw myself in a more positive light. I was feeling better and moving with more vigor (and with better posture, too) than I had in decades. I was in better health. Meanwhile I was enjoying the workouts: often challenging and always involving both different variations and intriguing combinations of various muscles. Boredom was never an issue while at 212.
I am grateful for what Kerry especially and Collin and Sean have given me: the unspoken mantra “don’t consider anything impossible”; and I am thankful to Kiki for refining my Hi 5, and I am most appreciative of Heather running a seamless organization.
Kerry and his 212 Team always make helpful suggestions, pointing things out to me, and correcting my position. Now it is my turn to give them a few healthy pointers.
I couldn’t say it better so I will just quote Mark Twain:
“Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably. Never regret ANYTHING that makes you laugh.”
I have always followed the 212 Team’s suggestions, now follow these!
Brian
