Relationships and 49ers workout w/Daniel Brunskill!

Today has been uber productive and its only 11:38 a.m. I went to bed earlier than usual so I was up earlier than usual, 6:30 a.m.! So not normal for me but those of you who know me even a little bit know I'm a true night owl. 

But by 8:30 a.m. I forced myself out of bed and onto a walk. Today is a late afternoon work day so I was able to get almost a full walk in (which is 3 miles or more now). However, I did a shorter walk because I had signed up to do a workout webinar with the 49ers and Special Olympics. I had no idea what to expect and as I have to admit I'm not in the best shape, I didn't want to hurt myself before work. 

On my walk, I finally listened to the first of 4 "A Bit of Optimism" podcasts that Simon Sinek started a few weeks ago to help through all the events happening around us. The first one was with Christina Tosi & Will Guidara. What an amazing couple - and rightfully the couple that Simon went to to share about relationships.  It was so good (already posted the link to it on my facebook page, a few before this one so just scroll a little bit) and both made a lot of sense, and validated my experience, thoughts and study of relationships.

You really need to listen to the entire podcast to appreciate all that was said but one thing I want to pull out and give my thoughts and experience on is the idea of how we can foster or sabotage our relationships by keeping a checklist of what we feel someone has done wrong or acted wrong towards us in our perspective. We ALL have done it. And I'm confident in my person to say that if you think you haven't, then you are lying. We ALL have kept some type of list of someone in our lives who we feel have wronged us - sometimes even after they apologized and we said we've forgiven them, or even if they are out of our lives completely and can no longer hurt us.  It so convicted me in listening to them discuss this part in developing friendships. 

I come from a value-set that if God forgives me and the worst sins on the planet, then I need to forgive others. Do I do that daily? No. I'm a sinner everyday but I strive to be a forgiving person. It takes time for me to understand some people's perspectives and forgive them, but I know I have forgiven certain people in my life (including myself in those situations - which is harder for me always to forgive myself). And there are others in my life that I'm still working to forgive. I have that list - but I'm daily trying to cross things off of it. And I know there is someone somewhere in my life right now that has a list against me - and they may not be willing to cross anything off but continue to beat me with it - even after working through perspectives and apologizing when I needed to. But I don't want to live in that space or be a person like that. So I work everyday in my prayer life for God to give me patience, to give me discernment, and to help me project love and positivity to those I come in contact with. I'm human though so I falter daily in all three in some way. But each day I know I take a tiny step forward in becoming a better person on the inside and on the outside (I've already mentioned my facial expressions need some work). And a tiny step is still a step. It still matters.

Today, I got not a new perspective but one that came from someone and a couple friend of his that further convicted me to keep this a subject of focus in my personal life. I'm so grateful for the subject that was presented in the way it was - and it gave me a lot of hope in the future of my relationships, both friendships and romantic relationships.

Then I had time to listen to one more podcast before starting my workout webinar with the 49ers. That was the second "A Bit of Optimism" by Simon Sinek, this time with Curtis Martin. Yes, that Curtis Martin. NFL Hall of Fame running back. But that podcast deserves its own blog so that will be next; but it deserves more time in my head to process so it may be a few days before I post it.

To finish, I truly enjoyed the simple but hard hitting workout that the 49ers training staff showed us this morning. It was very neat, too, to see some of the Special Olympics athletes who joined the podcast and to hear their questions and see their excitement to participate. It was a really special hour to be a part of and commit part of my day to - and it got more juices flowing on my current search to find the right avenue to fulfill the volunteer and charity-focused part of my person. There are so many ways we can give back but I really want to find something that I can truly commit to more permanently. I have so many wants and desires in helping multiple organizations - but I don't have the time or the money to give to them all! (Side note: when asked what I'd do if I ever played and won the lottery, I'd first pay bills/car/home/give to family/travel, but what I'd really, really want to do is to set up a charitable organization and make a career out of helping others/charities. That would be my actual dream job: to help domestic and even worldwide organizations - be able to travel to help anywhere anytime without one thought. Be a philanthropist who isn't afraid to get my hands dirty when needed). 

But since I'm not wealthy and have to work to pay bills, I want to find a consistent way to volunteer or help people around me. I don't know what that is yet since I have so many desires to help in so many areas (homelessness, orphans/foster kids, alzheimers/dementia, cancer, literacy, helping people who are manic/depressive to see positive, etc, the list goes on). Besides my prayer to be better in my relationships, this is the other focus of my prayer life right now: Lord, where do you want me to serve?

If you are a praying person, I ask humbly if you'd pray about these two things for me: "Lord, help Tiffany be a better person today than she was yesterday in at least one way, and, Lord, lead Tiffany to the best place for her to serve and volunteer - and make it so clear that she can't say no because she sees you leading her there."

Thank you in advance for any prayers sent with me in mind. I hope you have a great day today and I pray there is something in this day that inspires you, and by extension inspires you to help someone.

Lot of love,

Tiffany 💋