A cheer for the Cheerleaders

My personal trainer ran the Manchester Marathon at the weekend, raising over £1000 for charity along the way. It got me thinking about cheerleaders.

My PT is also my brother-in-law, we have a session every Monday morning at 6.15 am and honestly Monday is my favourite day of the week. I have a workout and a therapy session. Does everyone have therapy with their PT?

 I hear his voice in my head often when I'm struggling with a lift or want to run an extra mile “ Go Lee, you’ve got this” and I have.  After PT I have the Monday walk with my sister, we catch up, put the world to rights and share our news. They are both fabulous cheerleaders in my life, supporting my goals personally and professionally.

My sister and their two children went down to Manchester and made sure to be at 3 points on the route to cheer on Alan. Isn’t that a fantastic thing, to have people in your life who will drive hundreds of miles, book a hotel and  are there on the side lines with signs and banners, high fiving you and cheering you on.

So often in our lives we get side swiped by the naysayers, the people who tell us to dream a bit smaller, that we are being ‘unrealistic’, that we should play life safe. Or we listen to our own internal voices, the voices of fear and self doubt.

What if we spent more time listening to our cheerleaders? You know the friends who you can call in the middle of the night, the friends who support your wildest ambitions and plans, the ones who roll their sleeves up and make a banner.

I see cheerleaders all the time in my work, they are there at the end of a fire shouting ‘you’ve got this’ , they paint signs to say ‘you are amazing’ and they sponsor their friends and family. They are there rain hail or shine to cheer us all across the fire and hug us at the end.

I have friends in my life who have been there for me through every season of my life, they have pulled me bruised and battered off a pavement, taken me home to bed to keep me safe. They invite me to parties knowing I will never come along but I want an invite anyway and they cheer me on from the sidelines whatever I do. When I decided to travel the world, they bought me a rucksack. When I decided to train as a firewalk instructor, they came and joined in. How amazing is that? I have friends who would literally walk on fire for me.

The thing is, we all have people in our lives who would walk across a fire for us, who only ever want the best for us and who will help with the big stuff.

We spend a lot of time worrying about what ‘other’ people think. Let’s spend more time focussing on our own inner voice and the voices of our cheerleaders, the ones who want only the best for us and are standing their on the sidelines with banners saying ‘you are amazing” 

In case no-one told you today- “you’ve got this”.