Room For Improvement

When I was a teacher, we would receive a summative evaluation every 1-3 years.  You could receive markings like “Consistently Meets”, “Adequate Meets”, “Inconsistently Meets” and “Does Not Meet”.  I always received great markings.  One of my principals told the entire staff that she never gives all “consistently meets” because she always believes that there is room for improvement. Regardless of how wonderful our classroom and teaching ability may be, we should always strive to motivate ourselves to do more.  That made complete sense to me!

I was excited to recently celebrate one year of my figure/fitness training.  In order to work with my trainer in Cincy last year, I had to first email her my photo so she could see if I had ‘potential’.  I thought my photo was decent.  My elbows were a little pointy (I call them my daggers), but I thought I fit into the two piece well.

So, here it is a year later and I take another photo.  Same bathing suit.  Stood in the same place in my house to take the pic.  When I put the two photos next to each other I was amazed at the differences.  Although my weight was about the same, I had gained a lot of muscle.  My butt (which I’ve discussed previously) last year was a little droopy on the sides.  Squats perked it up a bit.  My legs are fuller and my shoulders more rounded.

Seeing both photos reminded me that there really is always room from improvement.  I was content with the 2008 Yeager model, but further enjoy version 2.0.  So often the changes in our life our small.  I look in a mirror everyday, so I don’t really feel like I am making changes in my physique.  However, once you’re able to take a step back and look at the big pictures, you’ll see that change is coming.  Small steps can make a tremendous difference.  If you’ve been trying to accomplish something for some time, stop and think about where you are now with your goal.  Now, think about where you were when you first started.  Although you may not be at your final step in the process, I think you’d be amazed at how far you’ve come thus far.

M.Y.  February 2009