When Alycia Israel asked me to speak to her Ohio State BarBELLES again (for the 4th time), I immediately agreed! I love what she's done with this group and how she brings the weight room and confidence together for these women.

I pulled up my talk from a couple years ago and began to make a few changes.  After an hour here and an hour there, I had revamped the entire thing.  It morphed into something that was real to me and I knew the other women could relate.

Enter: Chip and Joanna Gaines.

Yep, I said it. I admit it.  I love them. I love the show. I love thinking I know how to decorate/refurbish/rebuild like them (when clearly I don't).

What's the first thing that takes place on that show? Chip and Joanna take a couple to a few run down houses. As they walk through piles of debris and dirt, Joanna points out how she envisions a wall to come down, the cabinets to move, build out an addition and add all kinds of charm to the home.  She sees it in her mind. Now her goal is to get that VISION to be as close to reality as possible.

We all have a VISION.  Maybe you call it a goal, or a step, or a dream.  But in reality, it's a vision.  You see something ahead of you, down the road that you want to happen.

Usually when we are new to that thing (fitness, powerlifting), we have a bigger vision than our eyes can handle.  We see a physique that someone else has.  We have a massive total in mind that we want to hit.  We put a number in our head that pushes us mentally and physically.  And many times, we want that VISION to happen yesterday.  We want it now. We want it 20x faster than it took anyone else to get there.

If you ever finished watching an episode of Fixer Upper, you find that the "Vision" part of the show is about 15 minutes long. It's not the meat and potatoes of the show! Not even close. What comes next (the next installment of this blog post) is really where the magic happens.

1. Do you have a VISION? (training, career, life, etc)

2. Is it realistic? (Nothing is impossible, but being realistic regarding time frame is important)

3. How vivid is your VISION?

4. Can your VISION be supported by those around you?

5. To accomplish your VISION, what other things need to be moved or change to make it happen?

While the Chip and Joanna Gaines analogy was fun to bring to these Ohio State girls, it parallels much of what we go through in training.

Stay tuned for the next post as we continue to move through the episode.