I’m not a spy. Let me rephrase that: I’m not a spy that I’m aware of per se but I’m never one to rule out the possibility that perhaps my current life is merely one I’m living out due to a case of amnesia so severe that not only am I oblivious to the fact that I even have amnesia, I’m also unaware that I’m actually an expert CIA assassin (ala Samantha Caine in The Long Kiss Goodnight.) Unfortunately, that scenario is unlikely, given that a) I’m no killer and b) I can’t yet drive a stick shift. (*bucket listed* the stick-shifting, not the killing) Everybody knows that you can’t be a successful spy without knowing how to drive a stick shift, something I’m reasonably sure I would never forget, even if I had amnesia. So for the sake of argument and the length of this post, let’s just assume I’m not and have never been a spy. But that doesn’t exempt me from benefitting from spy wisdom, which I’m more than happy to collect from movies and stories to share with anyone who cares to listen. And sure, I’ll just say it- probably a few that don’t (picturing my mother here who has always been very quick to mistake my brilliance for being “nuts”. Luckily, I have learned to welcome this misinterpretation as part of my healing on this particular life journey, enabling me to be so very familiar with being considered odd that rather than affect me in a negative way, it stokes my fire to be even odd-er. So, um, thanks mom!).
Ethan Hunt can always be counted on for solid spy wisdom, which he doesn’t fail to deliver in Mission: Impossible- Fallout. I’ll limit myself to one message that jumped right out at me from the big screen, and that is Ethan’s inclination to answer, “I’m working on it” to any of the how-when-why queries from his colleagues when they’re looking for reassurance that a definite way has been found. Hopefully your particular dilemmas won’t involve weaponry, explosive devices, or finding the answers to dealing with destructive psychopaths, but as go-to, knee-jerk responses go, this is one that can serve you well in whatever your day to day life brings about. By assuming this stance you are asserting to yourself that you’ll have what you need in time for when you need it. This is an act of moving in faith. Believing it allows you to bring it about. As I’ve repeated time and time again, you are already equipped with everything you need to carry out any mission that is laid on your heart. But you need to believe it FIRST! Many times without being shown any proof whatsoever! This will often require operating in the fake-it-til-you-feel-it mode, which you will eventually come to understand is less about faking as it is assuming an identity within yourself that while foreign to you in the beginning, is not actually “false”, but merely unexplored. How can it not be a part of you if you pulled it from somewhere within you? You’re merely tapping a resource within that you had not yet chosen to access. Working a muscle that had previously been neglected. Come on, I’m a fitness trainer- all workout strategy is life strategy in my eyes, so you knew I’d have to pull that analogy in!
When it comes to happiness and security, I align with Tony Robbins: we bring it about by consistently working toward self-improvement. We learn, we fail, we fall, we try- whatever it is, we work on it. And when you’re working on it, don’t flake out just because you’re not there yet. Instead, find solace in the knowledge that you’re working on it! Convince yourself by saying it to yourself when you’re challenged. Don’t have an immediate answer as you begin looking for it? No matter- I’m working on it. Frustrated by a new activity or job you’ve just begun? I’m working on it. A slow go on your physical fitness and health gains? I’m working on it. Behavioral or self-control issues that embarrass or you feel hold you back from personal gains? I’m working on it. You have the capacity to triumph over any trial that comes your way by doing the work. Though it may not always play out in the manner you may have planned, or with the exact results you anticipated, the dust will eventually settle after the scuffle. And when it does, I can assure you, like Ethan Hunt, you’ll damn well still be standing.
fit BEYOND form 
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