Identity

这几天在YouTube上看一些fitness pro们的视频，其中有这样一个视频让我很有共鸣，忍不住把整个英文的视频听写记录如下并标注了重点。

Source: Lisette Howard YouTube channel

So I’m a first generation Cuban-American, both of my parents are from Cuba and I was raised in Miami. I basically lived in Miami my whole life until I went away for college. I studied at Loxx University in New Orleans. I got double bachelors in International Business and International Marketing. And when I graduated college I decided to start my first business. I started a healthcare company and it was one of those projects where I was all in. I work 60+ hours a week, I was there Monday through Sunday, I was working till 12:30, 1 o’clock at night every night. And I realized that I was actually living a very unhealthy lifestyle. I was, you know, coming home exhausted, very stressed, drinking, you know, probably half a bottle to a bottle of wine every night barely eating. So I was starting to develop these very unhealthy habits because of the stress and because of all the amount of work that I had. And due to some changes in the economy and some changes in the healthcare industry, really led me to sell my business. So after 4 years of being this young woman with her, you know, ‘business’, I sold my business and decided to start looking for work. And unfortunately it was that 2008, 2009 period when the economy was, at least in Miami, the economy was super super tough. And I thought, you know what, I have 2 degrees from a great university, I’ve been in the business zone, I have all these skills, I would be able to find work no problem. And it actually wasn’t like that at all. I was seriously searching for work for like 6 month. And probably like many of you, who would like, finish working at some place or you sell a business, then you are like, that was your identity for so long, and now you find you are in a place where you are thinking ‘What do I do? What do I do now?’ So I decided to start making some small changes into my lifestyle. At the time, my fiancé, who’s my husband now, was selling me ‘You know what Lisette, let’s make some changes, let’s get back in the gym, you know, let’s change the way we eat… ‘ and it really started to transform the way that I wanted to live my life. So I decided to workout. I was working out probably 4-5 days a week. Like everything in my life, when I focus on something, and I dedicate myself to something, I really just jump all in. So I was working out consistently. And my trainer at the time, one of the trainers I was working with, was competing in his first competition, and invited us to go. And I said ‘Absolutely!’ So I showed up to the show and I had one of the best times that I had had in such a long time. And it really took me back to my time as a ballet dancer. I remember being on stage, loving it, loving to perform, and it brought up this little bit of passion that I had inside that had kinda being like suppressed for a while. So I went to the competition, I had such an amazing time, and literally it was the very next day, I told my husband, ‘You know what, if I decided to try to do this, do you think this is something I could actually do?’ And he, without question, said ‘Absolutely, you would be amazing. I think this is something really great.’ So I really quickly, I mean think it’s within 24 hours, found myself a coach, started training, and just went full force, with trying to become a fitness competitor. It was something that I kinda unsure about, I didn’t know what it was to be a fitness competitor, but I had a feeling that it was something that I was gonna really enjoy. And it allowed me to have that same structure that I had when I was younger. It brought out this really great passion in me to better myself, to change myself, to change my life. And I quickly started to find some success when i was becoming a competitor. I did very well in my first a couple of shows. And it let me to want to become a pro-athlete in the IFBB (Still some more before this video ends, but I’ll leave it right here. Because the toughest part had already got passed - finding that thing which you are passionate about and making the decision to live on that thing. The rest of the story will be straightforward, just stick to that thing.)