Have you ever associated something you think of as a fond memory with something you do regularly to feel good?

Or by contrast, have you ever had a negative memory that kept you from doing something positive?

Interestingly, I have both fond memories and negative associations with going to the gym. My home gym during 2009-2011 was a place in which I regained my health after 5 years of putting my health on hold while putting myself through nursing school. It is a place where I found my athletic side, passion for fitness and nutrition, and began to nurture my body in every way possible. However, little did I realize that it had become a part of me that was fully resting on perfect life balance. The moment my life took a few big changes, my health again went right away to the back burner.

I returned to school to achieve my Bachelors in Nursing, started an RN Case Management position with a local hospital, moved into an apartment I hated…understanding it was only temporary while my husband and I looked to buy our own home, and then…bought our first home, moving again, all within a very few short months. All but one of these changes took place within one months time. I none the less realize that I ever so quickly darted back to my comfort-seeking unhealthy patterns of living. Being healthy and fit was not yet a “comfortable” part of who I was.

Overtime, as I studied away and worked hard at a new job, while trying to make our new house a home…I rarely went to the gym and I ate whatever I wanted. The near 40lbs and three sizes I had lost became a thing of the past, a short-lived part of my life that escaped me almost before I could even claim it.

For the past year, I have been off and on again trying to regain my progress from three years ago. This requires making peace with who I have been, what once was, who I am now, and who I want to become. For the past year, I have been associating my home gym with both a positive and negative time in my life of getting healthy. I have been conflicted and that conflict has held me back.

Today, I conquered the battle my mind was having with association. I was bound and determined to make new memories at the gym and associate new feelings of health and self-worth. For the longest time, I thought returning to the gym without the same level of fitness as when I left would leave me faced with the failures of my past. However, during my first workout back at the gym today I realized that facing the gym is the start on a road to nothing but success. Additionally, I was able to complete a 90min workout with the same intensity that I could do than.

This is an encouragement to you, that whatever you are association negative memories to, whatever is getting in your way of starting, continuing, or starting over on a dream…tell association to get out of your way and just do it.