Goddess help me, it's come to this...

I'm taking comfort and inspiration from the "Chicken Soup" guy, Mark Victor Hansen:

Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.

But you know what? I reallyreally like this quote. It speaks to me these days. Because right now I'm in a phase of my life that really kinda sucks on a variety of fronts. The older members of my family are dealing with the inevitable consequences of old age and (in some cases) unhealthy lifestyles, and the younger members are ... well, let's just say that they're no longer so young that the trouble they get into is inconsequential. Money is a worry. I have trouble sleeping. My migraines have become more frequent. I'm fighting off a couple of low-grade infections. In itself none of it is hugely troubling, but cumulatively it's a bit much.

But as Mr. Hansen says, so what? If I wait for things to get better, I may be waiting a long long time, because the fact is, things are about as good right now as they're likely to be for the next few years. The best-the only--course of action possible for me right now is simply to proceed as if conditions were optimal. I may not be able to achieve as much as I would if conditions actually were optimal, but I'm bound to get further than I would if I simply sat around waiting for the clouds to part and a rainbow to appear.

In terms of my workouts, this has meant trying to keep up with my conditioning as best I can without putting myself at risk of injury. I will do my best at the HKC workshop this Saturday, but if my best isn't good enough to earn me a certification right now, so be it. I will learn a lot regardless, and it will be a great experience to work with some of the finest instructors and most amazing athletes in the world.