The other day, I received an email from out of the blue. Someone from another state found me through my website and was interested in possibly combining our businesses. Their business is quite different than mine, and I would have never thought to combine the two.

At first I couldn’t imagine how in the world we could possibly merge. When I Googled the combination of the two, it scared the bejabbers out of me! “Were they kidding me?” I thought, “I can’t do that! I’m too old and too wimpy for stuff like that! They need some young punk, who’s far braver than I!”

Then I caught myself. Who is this person who’s having such negative thoughts? That’s not me. So I reset myself. I started over. I remembered that every decision people make is out of either love or fear, and I was definitely in the mode of fear. My eyes were big, my heart was beating hard, and I got a general feeling of discomfort from tensing muscles.

As I reclaimed my power, I calmed down and asked myself, “If I weren’t afraid, would I do it?” That’s when logic was able to take over. I could ask myself real, appropriate questions like, “How would I go about it? What would I need to do? How much time would I need to prepare? Do I have that time? Am I willing to put in the effort?” And the most important question, “Do I want to?” The answer was, “Oh my gosh, that would be the coolest thing I’ve ever done!”

Did this make me overcome my fear? No! It still scares me, but I like to think of Mark Twain’s quote, “Courage is not the absence of fear. It is acting in spite of it.”

I wonder how many people dismiss great opportunities out of fear, staying in jobs that are unfulfilling. It’s common for people to talk themselves out of following their heart because something might go wrong, or they’re not good enough, strong enough, smart enough, etc., keeping them from reaching their full potential.

Some people even stay in bad situations because it’s somehow more comfortable than changing. Again, this is fear, and is unhealthy.

Be assured I am not promoting throwing caution to the wind. When making business or personal decisions, I believe it’s important to think things through, rationally. What I am suggesting, is to step out of the place of fear. Ask yourself the question I asked myself, “If I weren’t afraid, would I do it?” If your answer is yes, don’t stop with the questioning. Think it through, logically, to see if it makes sense. You may just surprise yourself by coming up with the ingenuity you need to accomplish something really great!

As for me, I have no idea what might progress with this potential business idea. All I know is, I have the courage to investigate it, and that’s a healthy place to be.

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How many times have you noticed yourself slouching, pulled your shoulders back to fix your posture, and then found yourself right back where you started, minutes later?

The reason this occurs is that there’s an imbalance in the muscles of your back and chest. Your chest muscles are short and tight, and your back muscles, specifically your shoulder blade area, are long and weak. This pulls your shoulders forward and your shoulder blades away from each other, creating a rounding of the upper back, and protrudes the head forward. This causes an excess strain on the spine, and leads to back pain.

To improve posture, the chest and back musculature must be balanced by stretching the chest muscles and strengthening the back. The following exercise will help accomplish this.

Inhale as you lift your arms to the sides, to an upward angle between shoulder height and straight up, palms of the hands facing forward. Exhale as you press your hands and arms gently backward, until you feel a stretch in the chest and shoulders. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. Inhale as you release the stretch and lower your arms to shoulder height. Exhale as you press your arms back and squeeze your shoulder blades together again. Inhale, release the stretch, and lower your arms until they’re half way between shoulder height and straight down. Exhale as you press back again, keeping your hands facing forward. Repeat this a few times, stopping if you feel any tingling in your arms, hands or fingers. You will probably feel the effects of this exercise immediately. Take time to notice the changes, and do it often.

Some personal trainers are trained specifically as posture specialists. They are taught how to assess stance and make appropriate, sometimes subtle, adjustments to exercises to improve posture. If you exercise on your own, take time to learn what proper exercise form is. Make sure you work your back and chest equally, and stretch at the end so your muscles don’t shorten, creating poor posture. It’s not uncommon for posture to worsen from performing exercises incorrectly.

Correcting your posture while doing your normal daily activities will help. The problem is, we can only remember to fix our posture for a short amount of time. We need to train our muscles correctly so they comfortably hold the body in the appropriate position without focusing on it. People with good posture don’t think about it because their muscles naturally hold them there.

If you want to improve your posture, start by performing the exercise I suggested above, be aware of your posture throughout your day, learn the details of proper form as you exercise, and exercise! Your posture will improve, you'll look better and feel better!