Thoughtful Thursday…March Madness…daring to live greatly...

Welcome to Thoughtful Thursday. This GreenNote Fitness newsletter mindfully gathers and distills useful information that is supportive to our journey. It is my mission to educate, inspire, and propel you into action that moves you towards your goals and life of purpose. Take control of your journey today.

March Madness. It’s that time of year in America where college basketball enthusiasts clammer to fill out their brackets and with fingers crossed, will their team to victory in the NCAA basketball tournament. Excitement fills the air and the possibility of being national champions suspends beyond the finger tips. One team that had that possibility extinguished in a historic way was the number one seed Virginia Cavilers. As coach Tony Bennett said, they had a historic season. They finished top of the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) in conference play and won the ACC Tournament. With a number one seed bid in the NCAA Tournament they faced a “lesser” team, number 16 seed University Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)…and lost. Never before in tournament history has a number one seed lost to a number 16 seed. Bennett, the ever-poised Virginia coach, spoke to the press after his team’s loss with class and honesty. Click to view video. After crediting UMBC for their well played game, he explained the loss, “That’s life.” What he said after that really stuck with me: “If you play this game and you step into the arena, this stuff can happen. Those who haven’t been in the arena or in the competition, maybe they don’t understand that there are chances for wonderful things that can happen but when you are in the arena stuff like this can happen. All those who compete take that on…”. What I heard in those words were those who dare to compete, those who dare to take chances, have an opportunity for greatness, regardless of the outcome. It got me thinking of a similar theme from President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Citizen In A Republic” speech - The Man In the Arena. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Another March will come and go. There will be victors... and…those who dared to step on the court and give something of themselves for the betterment of a team. At the end of the tournament, they will know they dared to live greatly.

Enjoy your journey, Lisa Schaffer GreenNote Fitness You wouldn’t happen to know just one person that would benefit from this information? Please forward it to them! Did you miss last week’s newsletter on core strength exercises…week 4 ...? P.S. Check out my Facebook page for inspiration.