How Dedication Can Bring You to Your Next Chapter
“Reinvent yourself” is a modern mantra for countless North Americans.
In the years since digital disruption and the economic recession, we still see proof all around us. So many people are creating the next chapters of their lives in or near retirement, or to begin a new line of work or hobby.
If we all write the story of our lives, then sometimes we have to turn a page.
Jean Titus, 50, has experienced that in the last 10 years or so. The former investment adviser began developing his own business projects after the 2008 economic downturn. His mother passed away, after warning him about eating too much to fuel his overzealous bodybuilding. And a chance meeting with a former professional athlete made him realize he had let his physical performance fall below his expectations for himself.
Always athletic, Titus spent the ensuing years getting into spectacular condition and developing his personal brand and business in fitness training and education.
Along the way he became a social media sensation.
“I started getting serious about this when I realized I wasn’t doing my best, and I wanted to do better,” he recalls. “I saw loved ones die or get sick because they hadn’t taken care of themselves and realized how easy it is.
“I decided I was going to do better. I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but I knew I could go out every day and just keep pushing it.”
Writing Your Own Act 2
Most of us won’t want to achieve Titus’s level of bodybuilding or be able to reach it. But that doesn’t matter. Your personal fitness goals are just as important, no matter what they are. And, as Titus would say, those goals are not only possible but attainable.
If that means tweaking your fitness routine or reinventing yourself physically, come in and let’s talk about what you want. Even after 50, many people want to have new experiences and gain different perspectives – and life sometimes guides us toward changes whether we want them or not, right?
Many good articles and resources are online for anyone wanting to write their own Act 2. Here are a few:
- “Major life changes are never easy, because your instincts and the urgent matters of the day work against you. But when you learn to focus on your future self, you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve,” says a Psychology Today article.
- From The Harvard Business Review: How to Reinvent Yourself After 50. “Understand you do have enough time.”
- From Forbes: Five Steps to Reinventing Yourself Professionally.
It started on a family vacation
Titus and his family were at the beach when one of his daughters snapped a photo of him shirtless. She posted it on social media, and it unexpectedly went viral, gaining thousands of positive reactions.
“I don’t even like to have my picture taken,” he says. “But after that happened, I noticed that people were paying attention.”
He previously had been athletic and even pumped up. But in recent years, Titus educated himself on fitness and nutrition, changed his eating habits, and trimmed his 6’1″ frame to his current 201 pounds.
He is dedicated to helping others learn, like he did, that a healthy lifestyle involves more than lifting weights.
His Instagram feed, with almost 200,000 followers, reflects that. “It’s not just pictures of myself with my shirt off.”
He encourages clients and others to think about what’s possible, not perceived limitations.
“I didn’t say, ‘I’m too old; that’s too difficult.’ Those things didn’t enter into my mind. I just have figured out how to do it. And that’s the approach I want people to have – especially people in their 50s.
“Once that wrench goes in, their thinking process has to stop and reboot. They come out with a whole new way of looking at what’s possible.”
Project Body Smart can help you get to your own “what’s possible” through a healthy lifespan plan. Contact me or stop in to see me at Global Fitness Kelowna.
