What are your resolutions for 2020?

Are you one of those people who would like to start the new year, right? Maybe you are making some great resolutions for 2020, and those plans will make it the best year of your life. Perhaps you want to start working out and get in shape. Maybe you would like to lose a couple of extra pounds so you can buy that nice slim-cut suit, or maybe you just want to be healthy and establish and sustain some new wellness habits that will pay you back in the long run.

Some of us might decide to quit drinking, others are determined to stop smoking, and still, others will cut back on their intake of junk food and bad carbs.

Either way, I am sure we all want to start the new year pumped up and enthusiastic. But of course, it isn’t easy to persevere with well-intentioned habits, and sooner or later, some of us will fall off the wagon. Well, it happens, but don’t despair! I wanted to share with you a bit of my story and let you know what motivates me, so maybe you will harness a bit of that along the way.

Surviving brain tumor surgery in 2018 motivated me to do my first Spartan Race in 2019.  Yes, 2018 did not begin with new resolutions but started with the unwanted surprise of a diagnosis. It is one of those things that make you realize that time is valuable, life is worth living, and mortality is not a myth but something to embrace. My diagnosis was a reminder that time is always passing and things that I had always wanted to do, I might not have time for!

Surviving more than 8 hours of surgery was not the hardest part. That began when I woke up because it’s like being a child again. You need help with even simple things like basic physical care or carrying groceries. Things like running and lifting weights seem impossible, so it’s easy to drift into a state of inactivity, which makes the inevitable bouts of depression and anxiety even worse.

But it was while I was lying in my lazy boy one day that I started dreaming about the seemingly insurmountable goal of running a mile outside again. I was beginning to think that I might lie around forever, which was scary, so I decided to commit to it.

Recovery is a slow process; it teaches you patience, humility, and empathy. You develop them for yourself so that later you can share those qualities with others. It was the slow and painful process of recovery that eventually sent me out to the local playground to try a chin-up. I managed just one, which was nine less than before the tumor. I knew I had to get back to my old self, and I knew I needed a big motivator, and that’s what lead me to Spartan. 

For those who have never done a Spartan Race before, it is an obstacle race. There are different levels of races, and every successive tier is more challenging than the last, but the idea is the same for all of them. The competitors run, and they tackle obstacles on the way. Once you cross the finish line, you get a medal, and the sense of accomplishment is mind-blowing! 

It took me until a year after the surgery before I was strong enough to participate in my first Spartan Race, but I did it, and I don’t want to stop. So, I have signed up for my second one, which is taking place on March 7th,2020, at Greek Peak. I am participating with my team Travelogion, and my goal is to raise awareness for brain tumor survivors around the world. The more people in on this, the merrier, which is why I would like to encourage you to sign up and do the race with me.

Someone recently told me, “Keep on telling your story; it motivates newly diagnosed people like me to know that there is life after surgery!”

There is life after surgery, and it takes one day at a time to live it fully!

This experience has made me realize that I want to commit my time and resources to serve the community, so we’ve created a nonprofit organization that provides overseas travel adventures to brain tumor survivors. You can learn more about it here. If you want to do the race with me, send me a message, and I will invite you to join our team!