Taking Chances by Paying it Forward

Hello Readers!

In my initial post of the year I mentioned that a goal of mine this year would be to take more chances in a personal manner. Recently I received an e-mail from a great organization looking for volunteers. The organization is "Girls on the Run" it is an organization who has a running program for girls between 3rd grade and 8th grade. They instill values in youth about the importance of running and exercise in their daily lives. They run two twelve week sessions each year where at the end of the twelve week session the girls you work with run a 5K in Kansas City.

You may be reading that first paragraph and be thinking how is this taking a chance? The chance that I took is that I applied to be an assistant coach for these youth. I would have applied to be a head coach but they are looking for only women to be head coaches. For me this is truly taking a chance that I might have let slip in the past. As an assistant I will dedicate two afternoons a week to helping teach the values of the organization and help motivate these children and pushing them to reach all their goals. I am a huge believer in charity and paying things forward, running basically has given me my life back so this is the ultimate opportunity for me to help make a difference in others lives and pass along the amazing feeling that running has provided me.

Coaching has always been something that I have desired to do in my life. So by taking this chance I will be fulfilling a life long goal of being able to coach and paying it forward at the same time. One of my great friends Andre is a coach of a track team and I always see the great pride he gets from helping children every day reach their goals. I can only hope that I get to see the children be excited to learn from me and achieve their goals in life. This is an experience I think will be so rewarding for both me and the people I am able to coach. Another friend of mine Cynthia's daughter participated in the program last year and she told me that I will be perfect for this. She said that it was an amazing experience for her daughter. I feel blessed in so many ways that this opportunity presented itself and that I didn't hesitate to act on it. I look forward to sharing some of the great stories of my teams success!

Have a great week readers! Make sure to keep beating those winter blues!
Life is short, Live it Hard!
Ryan