When I started on this journey of a Year of Transformation back at the beginning of 2020 I had no idea how far it would take me.

Initially, I was focused on the changes that would take place from transforming my body. I was mentally prepared to work hard and look different. What I wasn’t prepared for was how different I would feel inside as the end of the year begins to draw near.

In the last month I have done two things I never would have contemplated as possible at the beginning of the year.

One: I have started an even more challenging workout program, one that is kicking my booty six days a week.

Two: I have returned to the practice of a martial art I stopped training in over 16 years ago. This martial art is kicking my booty another three hours a week plus all of the extra time I am spending to catch up after all these years.

Why? Because it’s not just my physical muscles that are bigger these days.

Mentally, after spending a year training at least five days a week and quitting sugar for over a year I have found that not only do I have the courage to do more, I want to do more as well.

I haven’t weighed myself in ages, but I don’t care what the scales say. These days I care more about the fact that I can do lunges and squat kicks and more than six full press ups in a row. I care that I still have a mean side-piercing kick and that I haven’t forgotten everything that I once knew.

In the last post I wrote about the year of transformation I talked about ‘getting tougher‘. That was the last post I wrote for a good long while as I had nothing else in my head except for focus and discipline and changing my mindset. During that time I have changed. I have grown more focused, more motivated, tougher and most of all more courageous. I must have. I mean, who just walks into a unfamiliar Taekwondo (TKD) dojang after 16 years and starts back training without courage.

I was three gradings from black belt when I stopped training. At the beginning of the year if you had suggested that I started training TKD again I would have laughed uproariously. I would have laughed because I was unfit, because I was weak, because I was afraid.

Because of the Year of Transformation I got physically strong, I relearned focus and commitment and rediscovered the will to succeed. I realized that if I didn’t try, I would never know what I could accomplish.

I’m still afraid. I’m afraid of sparring and getting hit in the face, I’m afraid that performing flying techniques will damage my always dodgy back. I’m afraid I will never master self defense.

So what? So I’ll listen harder, practice more, ask more questions, learn more, train more. I will do more of the things I’m afraid of. I will make them strengths instead of weaknesses.

These things that seemed like reasons not to start are now reasons not to stop.

Published by the lean minimalist

Donna Sherriff is a New Zealand based improvement and operations management specialist. Seeing a need for simple, no fuss, improvement advice she started The Lean Minimalist blog in 2017. Donna writes articles offering advice and tips for rapid and sustainable business improvement based on over 15 years in Senior Management roles. Passionate about sharing the lessons of over 20 years on the high performance track Donna offers coaching services to professionals. She also writes about her own personal improvement journey, minimalism, and her life long struggle against the tyranny of cookies and sugar which she overcame in 2020. These days, Donna is pursuing a journey to earn her black belt in Taekwondo after a long hiatus of 16 years away from training. On the side she is an amateur but passionate musician and poet. View all posts by the lean minimalist