And thus began the thirteenth year…. I hope with all my heart that the words after that beginning to this chapter in the story of my life will be uplifting positive ones. This month marks the beginning of my thirteenth year of conveying my passion for fitness and health on the Internet. I honestly don’t remember what prompted me to start Howtobefit.com. I do remember that I was personal training at the time and probably because one of the things that I do best is to give, I must have decided to try to give more in the form of information and resources. It wasn’t until five years ago that I made the commitment to pursue my passion for fitness full time on the Internet. That commitment included creating a sophisticated e-commerce site and given the fact that I am self taught and everything that I have done with my websites was simple trial and error, that was no small undertaking. Having purchased a Polar heart rate monitor and used it (and subsequent models) every day since June 1985, I decided that the only product that I would sell was Polar heart monitors because heart rate training is the best way to achieve your fitness and weight loss goals, as well, of course, as training for sports. It was a great “ride” and I did well at first, but then big companies like WalMart and Target started selling heart rate monitors and then our country was being wracked by first a terrorist attack, then wars, natural calamities and now, as a result, a struggling economy that has resulted in me carrying a staggering debt load.
Call it passion, call it obsession or call it faith, but whatever you call it, please realize that I persisted because I believed in what I was doing and as I told the woman in the bank, it was all based on faith. So now I have a debt that will be paid off in 30 years instead of 40 and a lower payment which in turn also lowers my stress, which at times was becoming quite debilitating to my health. That is the reason that I wasn’t “in class” yesterday and why I didn’t blog.
As part of this lesson on my road of life, I am now reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and along with my fitness program to keep me healthy until I am at least 87 (when the debt will be paid off), learning how to teach my children about money. By so doing, I will know that they will be able to follow their passion as I have and still be able to make money – something that I am just now learning….
