If you know me, you know I’m a doer… a go-getter… a dive-in-head-first kinda chick. I like to have a goal and make it happen. As a result, on the outside, it may look like I have my shit together. But really, I’m letting the cat out of the bag… most of the time, I have little idea what I’m getting into at first, I just start and learn as I go.

This has been true for most of my big “successes” (as society defines them) in life. Eight months before getting 6th at the CrossFit Games, I didn’t even really know what CrossFit was let alone know how to do any of the complex movements. But, I made a commitment to try my best and I did it. Driving through my Colorado mountains, it hit me that I needed to run 500 miles across the state of Colorado for epilepsy awareness. Two and half months later, I was on the border getting ready to head north with no idea of what was going to happen. A month after that I was on the other border with a forever changed outlook on life. Four years ago, I was suddenly wrongfully fired from a job I had given my heart and soul to. My community and my income was ripped out from under me in a matter of seconds. Two weeks later I started my own business (really with no clue how to run a business) that is still thriving today and feels one-thousand times better than where I was. One day I was going for a hike and knew that I had to start leading all-women’s outdoor adventures. A few short months later I had 15 women signed up and trusting me to take them in the back country for 3 days. two years later, I have led 8 adventures. What?!

The point of sharing these things with you is to remind you that you don’t always need a plan. You don’t need to have it all figured out to start. All you need is the idea, the passion and to take the first step forward. The rest works itself out… or it doesn’t… but either way you tried.

Being in the fitness and sports space, I think it’s also important to remember that you don’t always need a plan. I posted this video on my IGTV the other day about trusting the process, giving yourself grace and knowing that you don’t have to always have a plan. Each of the examples I listed above are things I’ve done that have caught the publics eye or have been huge things in my life. But, those things aren’t the success. Those are the outcomes of all the successes I acquired along the way of overcoming adversities, learning, failing, standing back up and continuing forward (or sometimes backwards or sideways).

Success isn’t about what you do or how much you do, it’s about how you feel about yourself when you sit with yourself. Read that again and think about it… how do you feel when you sit with yourself?