“Almost all my middle-aged and elderly acquaintances, including me,
feel about 25, unless we haven’t had our coffee, in which case we feel 107.” – Martha Beck

It was my idea to self-emerge ourselves into this Oprah OYou Boot Camp Challenge.  What a great way to focus on little pieces of life and put them into action and make changes and see how it changes you.  What I wasn’t expecting was for it to happen so quickly. 

For this week, we took on Martha Beck.  Truth be told, little bitty Martha Beck took me down and fast.  I didn’t expect the change…and I’m still not sure what I am going to do with it.  I only know it’s there and seven days ago, it wasn’t.  Let me try to explain.  I consider myself relatively well-adjusted and for the most part, emotionally happy.  I have my dramatic days, but I quickly realize that this is my RIGHT brain overworking the situation and my LEFT brain soon brings in the reasoning and tells me to “chill out.”  That and chocolate works wonders. 

Throughout the week, I took in Martha Beck articles, You Tube videos and anything I could get my hands on to ‘find the message’ that I so desperately didn’t know I was looking for.  I was really just letting it happen and open to the change.  With each source that I laid my hands on, a little bit stuck.  I found myself walking around all week telling myself to “get out of my own way,” as I considered that possibly I was the only thing standing between myself and getting what I wanted.  Perhaps my need for perfection was stopping me from moving forward.  Or my desire to be loved that was making me feel insecure.  Or my fear of failure holding me back from starting something.  All of these things bubbled up and I found myself realizing that all of these things could be changed with one thing – getting out of my way.   

As this week winded down, I began to get lost in one of my favorite Martha Beck articles – “Your’s For the Asking – 20 Questions that Could Change Your Life.”  In one of the questions,  she gives the advice of…”Make a list.  Make a vision board.  Make a promise.”  This stops me every time – make a promise.  Make a promise to yourself on what you want in your life and how you want to be in this world.  What do you want YOUR book to say about you?  What do you want THIS chapter to say about you?  What do you want TODAY to say about you?  This is the moment…from this day forward…make yourself the promise.

So, here are a few of the Martha Beck lessons that I will take with me as we move on to the next week…

• Get out of your OWN way
• Ask yourself at any and every moment, “Is this what I want to be doing?” or “Is this the kind of person that I want to be?”  If it isn’t, CHANGE. 
• Why worry?  It adds nothing to your life.
• Love someone without caring what they do…Love them DESPITE what they do and for who they are.
• You have a journey.  You have a North Star that is your destiny.  You have the power to find it.  Just look up and believe.

Emotional and feeling a little “OYou overload,” we move into week 4 – Peter Walsh week.  I am having high-hopes for some grand organization.  Hopeful…I move into the new week’s challenge…with absolutely no idea what it will give me.  Maybe…a clean closet.