What Vince Lombardi taught me.

First things first: I lost 4 more pounds! In my first 3 weeks, I’ve lost a total of 11.6 lbs, and happiness is mine. On the exercise front, however, it’s a little more bleak.

I had a conversation with Vince Lombardi recently. You know him. The coach for whom the Lombardi Trophy is named. The coach of the Green Bay Packers, who led them to victory in the first two Superbowls ever.

It started last week, when I was a little discouraged. I had been doing well; exercising regularly. But I pushed too hard, and I crashed. With the crash came overwhelming fatigue. I’ll admit, it was scary. I was full of doubts about whether I could even do this. Maybe I’ve just wasted money on the Lifetime Fitness membership.

When I told my sad story to my friend Vince, he said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

Well I’ll be darned. He’s right! And crushing fatigue brings crushing cowardice. So okay, I wasn’t really afraid. It was the fatigue talking. But I really was tired. I told him maybe I would quit for a while and try it again in a couple of months, when I’m feeling more up to it.

But Vince said, “Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”

Okay, no quitting. Check. “But Vince,” I said, “What if I just get knocked down again?”

He responded, “It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.”

“But I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do what needs to be done,” I told him. “I don’t even know what the heck I’m doing half the time!”

Coach Lombardi insisted, “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

Okay, so I needed to evaluate my desire to get better. Did I have a strong enough will to keep going, to build muscle, strengthen my bones, increase my stamina; motivation enough to work for months and months before I saw results? After some introspection, my answer was a resounding YES. I have the will to succeed.

Vince seemed pleased. He encouraged me further by saying, “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

Now that was a new concept! I guess the more I pour into this Adventure, the further I get on my journey, the more difficult it will be to give it all up and slide backward to where I was.

Okay, not to whine or anything, but I hadn’t been dealt a winning hand! I start with significant handicaps: fibromyalgia, diabetes, chronic fatigue, muscle pain even before I get started.

But my friend Vince had an answer for that one too. He said, “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”

Thank you Coach Lombardi, buddy of mine, you are so right! We’re not all capable of the grandiose effort. In my quest for health, I can’t do too much at once. I’m starting from a different place, and at a slower pace, so my success has to be measured by different criteria. I’m doing all I can with the hand I’ve been dealt, knowing that my hand is like nobody else’s and I cannot judge or be judged based on anyone’s progress but my own.

“Two steps forward and one step back” is a net gain of one step forward.  It’s progress. It’s success. Besides, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and that is NOT a quote from Vince Lombardi. It’s from the bible. Philippians 4:13, to be exact.

The other quotes, the ones in red, were actual quotes from Coach Vince Lombardi.