By David Tepera, June 24, 2020

Look at all your possessions and things you’ve accomplished. Did you earn them, or did someone give them to you?

Did you outwork your teammate for the starting position, or do you think you deserve the spot because you’re a senior? Guess what? The athlete who works the hardest, plus improves their skills, will beat you out every time. The winning athlete will take pride knowing they earned it.

Are you the person who put in the extra hours at work to win the promotion, or the lazy family member who gets the breaks? The hardest worker possess winning pride, while the other will never learn leadership skills.

We see people on a daily basis who come to us that are mentally and physically broken. Some are desperate to have their lives back. Through the years, their bodies depleted of energy and life became a daily battle.

Our biggest pride and joy, is watching people grow with pride as they put in the consistency and work to get their bodies back in shape.

My eyes always swell listening to smiling aging clients tell us they worked in their yard for the first time in years, they can now walk without a limp, or that their shoulder, knee, sciatic nerve pain is gone and they have more energy to enjoy time with family.

This is exciting for them because they earned it through their own hard work. I truly enjoy working with older clients because they experienced a life of strong work ethic. Just know, the average age of my clients range into their 70s.

To me, there’s a big group of today’s youth who has lost their sense of work ethic and only puts a hand-out instead of a hand-in.

To all you graduating college students, here’s a word of advice: “clean up your social media.” You will fight for new jobs against other inexperienced college grads. I promise, the ones with the cleanest and most wholesome social media will get the interviews.

It’s time for everyone to start helping others. Find a way to volunteer, mentor, coach and stop judging people you don’t know. We all have a different set of experiences, so respect others’ decisions as long as it’s not destructive.

The only thing you can control is the hard work you put in each and every day. This will give you pride knowing that you’ve earned it.