A look back on our first year.
On the dawn of our one year anniversary at Unbound Training Co., I want to share my thoughts on this little endeavor of ours.
When I reflect on my personal dharma, my offering to the world, there are 2 consistent things that people have expressed:
- Strength to do things they didn’t know they could do.
- Fostering community.
These are my most proud attributes. Knowing how profound and life changing those two things can be for people makes my heart explode.
In June of 2020, I woke up in a sort of desperate place - my employer informed me they weren’t able to pay me for the last month. If you don’t know me, I’m a single mom of a few kids andddd we were all in the middle of Covid.
I woke up at roughly 4 am June 16th, it was time to make an action plan and I was finally ready to create the thing I always wanted.
But, if I was going to create something, it needed to be from my heart - it needed to be everything I ever wanted. I just started writing- some of it nonsense, and created chart after chart of connecting the pieces.
This new endeavor needed to be about creating freedom for clients through strength. Freedom to do the things they’d always wanted and the strength to do it, but systematically, with proper programming so every individual could achieve the body they desired, regardless of their starting point. Plus, a proper community to support one another in our individual endeavors regardless of what the world was hurdling at us. It needed to be authentic and inclusive and hold people to their word and their feet to the fire.
For me, it was a moment of complete vulnerability to reach out to my community and say “hey… I have this idea” and to have people give me a “fuck yes” back was just what I needed to hit the GO button on manifesting something completely new and different.
Within days WE created Unbound Training Co.
I say “WE” because it is absolutely a collective. I created the space (ahem, cleaned out my garage) and gave it a name but the people that filled this community are what made it - it grew organically into a fear seeking, goal crushing, unstoppable team of humans who laughed and cried and sweated together.
We have climbed rock faces, repelled off of mountains, done Goruck events and Castlemen Navigation, we’ve learned to shoot and to grapple, we have carried heavy things in dark places and lifted hundreds of thousands of lbs together, we have lost lbs and lifted each other up.
I witnessed it from the very best seat in the house.
What nobody but I knew was who cried every night because they were all alone, who was in the middle of a divorce, who was struggling to keep the lights on and who had lost loved ones.
Those people were all of you.
Every single person who showed up for one another was struggling but still showed up.
It has been the most rewarding thing to ever be a part of. To witness humans in complete desperation belly laugh every day as the sun rose.
It was what we were all craving. We needed and still need this community.
This wasn’t a year of glory-full sacrifice like war or even commendable enduring, it was a slow and painful death. It was loss and distant (if any) connections with friends and loved ones who were maybe actually dying or slowly dying of depression, financial fallout, fucking starvation or lonliness.
Our heads are spinning right now with the opportunity to turn off the zoom and say “Yes, I can come.” To approach a greeting with a handshake and a hug but please, can we pause for one more moment?
In the mud of this last year, something bloomed. Not just here at Unbound but around the country and world…
A desire to look inside, to read a little longer, to reach out to friends we hadn’t seen in years and enjoy the sunrise or sunset on distanced or solo hikes.
We remembered that life is in fact fleeting, moments are precious and there is wonder all around us.
We took the path less traveled, we took off our ego suits, let our hair get a little messy and stayed barefoot a little too long.
Because of the darkness, we were left alone with our own shortcomings and instead of being swallowed into hopelessness or distracted by shiny things, we grew and learned and trained in new ways.
Personally, in my garage and over zoom - in a time of need, we collectively created a space for support to lift each other up and cultivate the community we each so desperately needed (and need) to survive.
In the midst of nothing, together, we created this space where we found something beautiful, we found success and unlikely humans we never would have known. A true hodgepodge of individuals looking to build one another up in the name of strength and a willingness to get uncomfortable to do it.
The few connections we had tasted sweeter. The small outings, the tears and laughter reinforced this bond.
Who were the people you leaned on in the darkness? Who were the people that leaned on you? In your moments of stillness, what did you dream about? Who did you dream of being?
Things felt more profound through Covid because we were reminded of our mortality but the reality of our mortality has not changed as the world opens up.
Remember, connections are still essential.
Remember, the sun doesn’t shine less beautifully in the morning light because your to-do list got longer with the opening of the world.
Remember that some things can and should just be delivered.
Remember the belly laughs of human connection. Remember the sweet taste of a glass of lemonade or beer or whisky with a friend when you bring your own cup.
Remember how amazing it feels to take your mask off for a run or workout… to taste fucking air. So simple.
Remember the places and people and things that made you grow, from the darkness and the mud to lotus into this new life. Not the life you had before but a new one that remembers how precious this life is, that drinks in every moment.
Remember how important your health and wellness are before it’s too late, again.
Remember how precious connection and sunrises and taking off your suit of ego and armor is. How amazing THIS life IS.
As the world re-opens, I myself have felt this pull to experience everything I
“Missed out on”.
But I ask you to pause for just a moment longer and consider the last year and a half and the small moments of awe it provided and everything you learned about yourself. .
The world is opening up and our old habits, friends and routines are returning.
I am inviting you to consider that the pause was not a “missed out on” but an expansion and deeper dive into the life you might just actually want. Maybe enduring the darkness allows you to live a more authentic life.
Let’s not lose this remembering and our tribe. I am forever changed by this experience of creating a community with you all and immensely grateful to each of you. I am incredibly excited to see how we can create a new life, incorporating the knowledge this year has gifted us with a new appreciation for life. What a ride!
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.” – Og Mandino