The life and times of Merry Khaos and her alter-ego, Kristie Grey. A romp through the inner workings of a mind in roller derby athletics, training, and business management.
I fully and readily admit that patience has not always been my strong suit.
I have always been one to rush into decisions. I liked to call myself ‘spontaneous’ when I was younger, but now I see that it was purely rash decision making. Not all of these rash decisions ended up yielding negative results (I certainly wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for rash decisions). Moving in with my brother, going to HACC for theatre, going BACK to HACC for Humanities years later and joining roller derby were all split second decisions. So was auditioning for “There Goes the Bride”. So was starting Herbalife. So was deciding to be a coach. So was both years of Rollercon.
An example of a positive result from a rash decision… Warren and I
That being said, a lot of rash decisions have not yielded such amazing friends and positive results. But “That’s ok,” I’ve always told myself, “They will eventually. I’m on my path to awesomeness.”
So funny thing about that. I’m listening to the audiobook now Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters by Jon Acuff. (What can I say, the title caught my eye and his writing and narration style is reminiscent of my own so the messages are hitting home really strong)
Seriously. Buy it or download it. Amazing personal development.
In the book he talks about the Path to Awesome. How we’re all on our own Path and how if we don’t look around and take an honest appraisal of where we’re at now and again, then we may not realize that we’re actually on the Path to Average by accident. I have always said that I don’t want to just wait for my turn to die. I continue to hold that belief.
I have recently begun seeking full time employment to compliment my Herbalife business. Let me be clear: I am not putting a halt to my health coaching. I love it, it’s my passion and I feel like my genius lies within the realm of my coaches and clients. That being said, college, relationships and 10 years of minimum wage jobs and botched rash decisions have left me in a hole (ok, a crater really).
I have been bad at being patient.
I did not want to recognize as I graduated that I needed more time to develop my business. I needed more time to become a good coach. I needed more time to understand how to expand my client list simply and locally. I do not regret a single coaching gig. Oh no way! This summer was an amazing ride – full of hills and valleys and corkscrews (actually and figuratively). I have formed strong friendships thanks to my rash decisions of the last few months. Now is the time to change it up, however. I didn’t want to admit that I needed time to become strong at skills and at jobs. I didn’t want to waste time, and in the process I did NOTHING but waste time.
Oh wait, I guess I should mention one more rash decision: I’m moving to Baltimore.
An exact date has not been set, but in order to walk the Path to Awesome I know I need to move. I’ve been saying for the last 2 years that when I graduated I would be moving out of Central PA. I knew that I needed to – I just didn’t know where to go. Well, I know now. I have been applying for full time jobs both in Lititz and in Baltimore. So we’ll see which ones call me first.
Some places I’ve applied to: Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore Aquarium, Discovery Channel, Honest Tea, Baltimore Sun, Charm City Cakes, Merritt Athletic Clubs, Sheetz, Jimmy John’s and Heavy Seas Alehouse. I’ll be honest, these are just the names that pop into my head. I’ve been sending out 2 to 10 applications a day for at least 5 days. (One of them has to at least interview me, right?)
So here’s the plan for my Path: continue to build an online community and support system for athletes to become HARDERBETTERFASTERSTRONGER. Continue to build up my team of amazing coaches and show them they are awesome and strong and have everything inside them to be successful. Work a full time job for a while to pay down my bills and put some stuff into savings. Move to Baltimore and work with a local club to begin building a local community of clients and coaches. When I hit GET team, I will be able to afford all of my bills, savings, taxes, travel and extras enough to leave whatever job I had been at.
At the Northeast Derby Convention
If it takes one year, awesome. If it takes three years, that’s ok too. This patience thing is where I will learn the skills and learn how to edit and learn how to master all things coaching and health. The patience will hopefully spill over to my personal life, where I have had a habit of expecting things to come along quicker than they should.
And derby. Derby will still happen. I go to see a Physical Therapist tomorrow to get my knee and IT band looked at. If they tell me that I need to take time off, than that is what I will do [though maybe not starting tomorrow]. I am also putting in a bid to help out the Harm City Homicide as a coach. I have found a passion for men’s derby this year, and I want to help my southern boys be strong and fast.
Photo by Hispanic Attack
Here’s really the big key: to the outside world nothing will look different. I will continue my Shred Challenges. I will continue my Instagram and WordPress accounts. I’ll be that person once more that people say, “How do you do it all?”
And my answer will be: “Have you ever heard of Herbalife?”
Derbalife is everywhere.
For more information on getting healthy or becoming a coach, drop me a line at KGreyActiveNutrition@gmail.com
And now it’s March. And now it’s time to get serious.
Two more months of school. Roller derby bouts are starting. Last month of qualifications before the Herbalife Leadership Conference. One month before our first home bout.
I have a lot of things on my plate this spring and I am stating my intention that I will not only BALANCE everything, but I will excel at it. I am taking my business to the next level. I am doing more work in the community locally to support what I do in the roller derby community.
I have blocked out times for study, for workout, for follow up, for talking to people.
In the month of March I need to help 75 people find better health and nutrition. I want to coach 75 new people on how to live better and feel better. I want to inspire them and work with them. In March, when I change the lives of 75 people – I will change my own life.
Using my life as an example – I have carbs and junk around ALL the time. I avoid it by eating high protein and healthy!
I will do this on top of a reoccurring injury. Yesterday during softball practice I stepped in a gopher hole while [beautifully] sprinting to and fro across left field shagging fly balls. My right knee crunched three times before I went down like Frasier.
So after weeks and weeks of recovery – I feel like I’m back at square one. I can put weight on it and I am further along from the start, but the challenge with this knee continues. I will train despite it. My nutrition was structured well to begin with, so I will continue the trend and work my recovery tabs back in. I will show everyone that a knee injury is nothing to hold you back. You are limited only by your mindset.
Taken at as close to the same angle and perspective as possible. Sad face.
Health and wellness for my community is the goal. Strength and prowess for the derby community is my commitment. I am excited to build friendships and relationships this month. I am excited to meet the people who will become the leaders of healthy living on my campus and in my community. I cannot wait to conquer fear and start building my vision.
My Fit Clubs and Nutrition classes start next week. Though there is only two months of school left, I will not let that deter me from making any impact I can. I learned last week, while talking to the manager of the food and catering there on campus, that the student body actually petitioned for MORE fried food. He had actually wanted to do one fried-foodless day a week and was told no by our student government.
This Fit Club in Cali is a great example of the kind of friendship and motivation I will bring to Central PA
All the complaints I’ve had about food at school has been because of the student body. So I have a huge task on my hands if I am looking to begin transforming us into a healthy, fit school. I am looking forward to challenging myself to be a strong leader, and challenging my peers and those in my community to be best version of themselves that they can be.
If you are just as excited as I am to affect change in the health of your community or sports league, please e-mail me so I can tell you all about health coaching and my goals for March! KGreyActiveNutrition@gmail.com
And for good measure … here’s a photo of the sea monster that my parents call an “algae eater”:
Khaos Theory Derby 