Faith Family Fitness – Foreword

I was so honored and humbled by the foreword to my new book, Faith Family Fitness, I wanted to share it as a blog post. I hope you enjoy the kind and inspiring words my good friend and colleague, Britney Elizondo, wrote as she encourages you to find balance your life, find lessons in your mistakes, and live a more purposeful and fulfilling life through faith, family and fitness. Enjoy!
“In life we all face adversity. We face a fork in the road and choose left or right. Sometimes we choose to move forward and too many times we go backwards. Each person is different and while there is no right or wrong decision to be made, there may be consequences if we don’t make the best decision.
That’s life. It happens.
I think what’s most important in life is which step you take next. Do you beat yourself up for making a “bad” decision, or do you use it as a learning pillar? An opportunity to grow.. become stronger. Become better.
“In order for faith to grow, adversity must be faced. Through trials and tribulations, strength is found.”
Through trials and tribulations, strength is found. I love that. It’s such a great and powerful reminder that in life we’re going to fall. We’re going to stumble. That’s a certainty.
But it’s IN your times of adversity you truly find yourself. You learn your strength and you see your determination and your inner, true beauty.
My dad, who is also the Pastor of my church (Well of Hope Christian Fellowship), was preaching on the fallen man one Sunday morning. He said that a strong and courageous man falls 7 times and gets back up 8.
Sure, you can stay on the floor. You can beat yourself up and throw yourself a little pity party.
Been there. Done that!
The truth is that’s where anyone rooting against you will want you to stay.
But if you’re living with passion, you’re living to fulfill your purpose, and you understand your ultimate calling and your WHY.. you must realize that you can’t take steps towards achieving your goal (you can’t take steps anywhere, really) when you’re lying on the ground.
You get up. You grow stronger, taller. More wiser. And you know how NOT to do it the next go-round.
Life is going to knock you down. I want to encourage you to get back up! Live for others and live to make an impact in the world.
You see, my ultimate goal in life is to make a difference. I want to get to the end of my road, look back, smile and know, without question, that I fought to make a difference in this world. We live in a dark, negative, sad world. It’s all around us.
The news is created to highlight everything wrong in the world because it’s known that more people are impacted and are more likely to become obsessive over a negative story over a positive one. Sad, but so true.
Negativity breeds negativity.
I don’t need to watch the news to feed my mind with negativity; it’s already all around us. My desire is to be a light. A positive ray of hope, encouragement and inspiration for change and a better tomorrow. We don’t need more people hoping you stay down; we need more beautiful souls lifting you up. We need to encourage each other and be a beacon for change.
Someone I admire and who has been an impacting light in my life is Doug Bopst. He is the first person to say that we all make mistakes. But mistakes don’t define us. They’re only seen as a failure if your story ends there and you don’t use it as a learning experience.
One of my favorite quotes of his is, “If you have never failed, you have never tried. If you haven’t tried, you never took a chance. If you never took a chance, you never believed in yourself. You didn’t have faith.” And without faith, we are nothing. We’re hopeless. Sad.
Friends, there is always a silver lining. Always!
Doug has one of the most incredible and inspiring stories about facing real life challenges (drugs, addiction, abuse, self-deprecation, insecurity…), and overcoming these demons to grow into an extraordinary example of hope, faith, and encouragement. He is one of the most passionate and selfless people I’ve ever come across and is completely genuine and authentic to his cause — helping and serving others to help them achieve the absolute best version of themselves possible.
Doug doesn’t dwell on his past when, in all honesty, it would be completely understood if he did. Normal even.
Instead, he uses his past as a reminder of where he’s been, and how far he’s come. He wrote his first book, From Felony to Fitness to Free, to tell his unbelievable and inspiring story; he has now written this second book, Faith Family Fitness, to demonstrate the power of F^3 and how you can use the 3 F’s to live an all-around better life.
Regardless of your faith and religion.. whether you have family and friends or not.. and despite your fitness level… this book is for you. It’s an inspiring journey through his past and an uplifting story of hope for the future.
Faith, Family, Fitness will challenge you to go deep, look inside yourself, and journal your way through finding a stronger, more resilient, hopeful you. Because when your 3F’s are in balance, you find yourself on the road to living a more inspiring, fulfilling and purposeful life.
BE inspiring.”
Britney Elizondo
Owner, EllyB Marketing