lifestyle
Legacy: How To Give To Yourself to Become a Stronger and Better Person
my world • Leaving a Legacy • lifestyle • health-wellness
One of the things I'm constantly writing about is giving and serving others. As an advocate for the homeless, I love to help ordinary people in the suburbs become aware of ordinary people living on the streets. We are all the same, and whether you exist in a mansion or under the bridge, I've noticed many similarities. I write about extraordinary people who give their time to others.
But at the end of the day, I've realized the importance of giving to yourself. Yes, it's important to give back to our world but it's also super critical to give to yourself.
I ran a 15k recently around a lake in grapevine, Texas. It made me feel strong and powerful. I am not a fast runner. In fact, I feel really slow. I outran runners ten years younger! It was no small feat! Running a 15 k on concrete would be a challenge, but this was on dirt trails and hills. I wondered halfway through why I was doing the run.
It was a veterans day race. My dad was a veteran. But no, I decided, I wasn't doing it for him. Intrinsic desire is always important to be authentic. I knew that I didn't need to do the race for him. He was just fine. I needed to do it for myself.
I wanted to quit that day. I was tired, overwhelmed, exhausted and in pain. But today, now that it's over, I can say I'm thrilled that I actually did something just for myself. I didn't do it to prove anything. I didn't do it for the kids. I just did it. And it made me feel better.
Sometimes legacy means becoming better so that you can be stronger for everyone you care for. What is it you can do today just for yourself? Get a massage. Run a race. Take an art or cooking class. This season, find ways to give to yourself.
This holiday season, what ways are you going to give back to yourself? How are you going to take care of yourself?
Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Tammy Kling is a life coach, advocate for the homeless, and international author of 29 books including The Compass. Tammy is also the founderr of Write it Out, an organization that helps gang members, the homeless, and those living on the street write out their hopes & dreams via writers workshops, free journals and various other resources.
In addition to writing and coaching, Tammy is a mom of two boys, an avid trail and mountain runner, blogger, and adventure travel writer.
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