Here I am on Mother’s Day at the huge Move With Us Fitness event, thinking I’m doing my daughter a favour by taking her. Little did I know the lessons waiting for me. Like many teenagers, earlier this year my daughter was feeling the effects of lockdown and questioning her path, lost motivation and feeling despondent about the future. As a typical ‘mumma-bear’ I wanted to do what I could to shift her mindset and inspire her to believe in herself and her potential. So, given her passion for fitness, my beautiful best friend suggested I help her meet her fitness idol. Great idea! As it was, her number 1 role model, fitness entrepreneur Rachel Dillon was hosting a massive event. By meeting Rachel, I hoped to show my daughter how she too can dream big and had the potential to fulfil huge, amazing goals. So I booked us tickets. She had something wonderful to look forward to.
Lesson number 1: when you are in a slump, shift your energy
Given it was in another state, I had to join her. We walk into the room and there were around 1000 other women there – and I was perhaps the second eldest in the room – everyone else looked 20 years younger. It could have been intimidating for me but, a benefit of getting older is that you care less about what people think of you.
Lesson number 2: What others think of us is none of our business.
The work outs started and clumsily I got into it. My daughter was in her element and loved the atmosphere, the community vibe. I liked it too. I pushed myself beyond my usual limits in fitness and survived.
Lesson number 3: You never know how far you can go until you try and get out of your comfort zone.
And then, the expert panel q & a time kicked in. I had made assumptions that the panel discussions would be all about eating habits and training tips. It was so, so much more. The experts took to the crowd of women, mostly in their 20s and spoke about mindset, self acceptance, career advice, self belief, the benefits of failure and what they wish their younger selves knew. That was the core focus. It was such a heart warming thing to witness – here are 1000 women mostly at the beginning of a significant part of life, in a room listening to some healthy life advice that encouraged them to be their best selves. I was happy for my daughter and all the other daughters in that room – the next generation of leaders – who walked into a fitness event and walked out with a super charged attitude and practical tips to follow for a healthy mind, body and attitude for life. My favourite quote from the day: Power comes from owning who you are.
