When I was of college age, I went to Northeastern University for “biomedical” engineering (they did not have an official program at the time) and I remember landing a big co-op job at 19 years of age managing QA for an FDA regulated  manufacturing floor.  I was in heaven.  This wasn’t an internship—it was a contract position.  I was ecstatic but I wasn’t satisfied.

When I was in my late twenties, I worked for a municipality and alongside two other amazing women, determined the sewer rates for all of Greater Boston.  The work we did covered more than 40 cities (including Boston) and was used as the anchor for calculating all household sewer rates.  We felt empowered as women and important to the state of Massachusetts but for me, I still lacked something on my resume.

When I hit my mid 30’s and no longer in engineering, I found myself heading up a group of extraordinary trainers whose “call to service” in the community seemed to come natural to them.  I had enough clients to fill a small commuter jet and I was a mommy.  I was getting closer to feeling accomplished but I never took the time to take stock in that.

Now I am almost 40 years of age, leaving a position that on the “outside” did not have much exposure for me but on the inside of the company had a tremendous amount of exposure… and I have been humbled.

I have been brought to my knees…and then eventually face down.

As fitness professionals, all we want to know is, “Is anybody out there?  Can you hear me?  Am I speaking loud enough?”  For the most part we never really know how much we truly affect others.    People will come and go in our lives and they will say thank you or better yet, refer someone to you (which by the way, is THE ultimate compliment you can give a fitness professional) but it is not a summation of efforts.  It comes as little waves of delight throughout a somewhat hectic day.  And although at the time it feels amazing, the overall impact of it seems to be lost in the shuffle. 

Well over this past weekend I got to truly find out how many people were “listening” and when I say it has turned me inside out, I want you to know that that is an understatement. 

I am leaving a position of 4 years as a Physique Transformation Engineer for a company truly dedicated to healthy training for women who want to compete in fitness-type competitions to enter the murky world of blogging.  Am I scared? OH HECK YEAH!  Am I used to challenges like this, though?  Yes.  I am.  (hanging my head in shame, lol) I think I thrive off of them in some sick way. (No, really?  Ya think? *sigh*)  But I am up to the challenge and meeting it head on like a champ (read “I hope they sound convinced because I am making this up as I go along” in between those lines, ha!)  And honestly, what’s truly fueling me is:

I have arrived.

I have hit “that” place every fitness professional wishes they could hit.

And I am humbled…because I never knew 1) that I could reach it and 2) that it felt this good.

If for some crazy reason I could never work again, I would be ok with that because I feel as rewarded as I could ever be.  I want to thank everyone who has reached out to me and not only said thank you for my time, but took time out of their busy schedules to tell me *exactly* how I have changed their lives.  If you do not know what that feels like, imagine lying in a spa with an endless supply of peanut butter and ice cream (that did not make you fat) getting a mani/pedi by sun kissed hotties in the Fiji Islands while making goo gobs of money with your international conglomerate funneling it into an offshore account with NO TAXES!  Holy moly that sounds amazing!  Focus.  I need focus.  But that’s how I feel!

I FEEL SO BLESSED!

So as I sign off as Jodi Jones and sign on again as Jodiojo, I say from the bottom of my heart:

THANK YOU! 

Thank you for trusting me, thank you for believing in me, thank you for telling me and more importantly:  thank you for meaning it!  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.  I am going to get up off of the carpet now and take some of the fibers out of my nose (lol) and go back to putting the menu planning series together. 

Please stay tuned to the blog because there are so many things on the way:  pictures, videos, product reviews, give aways, surveys, more series and etc. 

I am really looking forward to my new adventure—no matter how scary it is—and hope that you will come along for the ride. 

Take care today, tomorrow and everyday because if you have not been fulfilled yet in your life, you are surely missing out!

WOOP WOOP!:o)

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