Double Duty – Pursuing Fitness and Business Goals

Happy Monday everyone!  Today I’m celebrating my 30th birthday – woop woop!  I threw a massive “GRIT by Brit” themed birthday party last weekend.  Long story short, it was the best night of the my life.  DJ, dancing, cupcakes, family and friends – what more could I ask for?  I have lots of pics and stories to share with you guys so be on the lookout.  I’ll post them soon!  Here’s a sneak peak in the meanwhile…

Celebrating my 30th Birthday in Herve Leger!

In honor of my milestone birthday, I decided to use an entire week of vacation time to stay home from my corporate career and teach fitness classes all over Dallas!  If you are local to Dallas, come join me for a class!  My schedule is below.  Also, I’ve added a new Google calendar (to the right side panel) so you guys can keep up with my teaching schedule each week.  YAY!

Brit’s Group Fitness Teaching Schedule, Dallas, TX

  • Mon 7/14, 5:30pm – Indoor Cycling, 24 HF Royal
  • Mon 7/14, 7:00pm – Turbo Kick, 24 HF Mockingbird
  • Wed 7/16, 12:00pm – Indoor Cycling, 24 HR Downtown
  • Thurs 7/17, 6:30pm – Turbo Kick, 24 HF Coit/Campbell
  • Fri 7/18, 6:00am – Indoor Cycling, 24 HF Downtown
  • Sat 7/19, 9:00am – PiYo, W Dallas Hotel Wetdeck
  • Sun 7/20, 3:00pm – TurboKick, 24 HF Mesquite

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that fitness is not my full-time profession, but rather a passion that I pursue in conjunction with my consulting career.  While balancing the two can be challenging, I find that writing this blog and teaching fitness classes actually helps me in my corporate career.  Recently I did an interview with my alma mater, Harvard Business School, to share details of my “double duty” life.  You can read the full article here.  I hope my experiences encourage you to pursue your interests and put in the work to get everything you want out of life!  Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done – with hard work, faith and confidence, ALL THINGS are possible.  Have a great week.  xoxo, Brit

Do you have a passion that you wish you spent more time pursuing?  

What’s your side hustle?

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Leaning in Sheryl Sandberg Style: Up close w/ Facebook COO and other Wonder Women

picstitch (22)Word on the street is Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, is positioning herself to run for US political office which is why she’s investing so much time and energy in promoting her new book, Lean In.  I don’t really care what her intentions are.  I just know that after I read the book and heard her speak this weekend, I felt re-energized and ready to CRUSH it.  I like Sheryl and the “Lean In” message because, to me, it’s a modern day, sexy, non-butch feminist movement.  I’m a “girly” girl, but I’m also feisty, aggressive and have lots of GRIT (aka GRIT by Brit).  The way Sheryl describes a feminist allows me to be ME 🙂

Sheryl Sandberg Lean InI graduated from Harvard Business School in 2010, so last weekend 2 of my best friends/classmates and I went back to Boston for the Women’s 50 (#W50) Summit.  W50 celebrated 50 years since women were admitted to HBS.  We had a rockstar list of key note guest speakers including Anne Moore,  Karen Gordon Mills and Frances Frei.  But in addition to these high-profile guests,  I learned SO MUCH from my fellow HBS women alumni who simply shared their personal stories.  I left the weekend feeling like…

“I got this. I’m gonna be okay.  It’s all good. The world is MINE.”

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I also feel a duty to share the Top 5 Life Lessons I learned over the past 3 days.  I hope these nuggets of wisdom impact you as much as they’ve positively impacted me.

  1. Life is about “juggling” not “balancing” priorities.  If we try to be “balanced” we’ll always be disappointed.  It’s not that easy.  Better yet, think of life as juggling and the only way to get good at it is to practice.  In life, we are juggling several balls (i.e. priorities) , family, career, friends, hobbies.  Some balls bounce if you drop them (i.e. career) but others don’t (i.e.family.)  When juggling, the ball that requires the most attention at a point in time is the one that’s falling – Howard Stevenson
  2. Dare to be bad.  This doesn’t mean we should act like 16 year old rebellious teenagers.  It means that in order to be GREAT at some things, we have to have the courage and wisdom to be BAD at somethings (i.e. Wal-Mart is not GREAT at customer service).  If we try to be good at everthing, all we achieve is perfect mediocrity.  The road to mediocrity is paved with good intentions.  But daring to be BAD is pathway to greatness. – Francies Frei
  3. Attribute your successes to your OWN talents and skills.  This is a key point that Sheryl hammered home which rings especially true for women.  While luck, the help of others and hard work play a large role in our achievements, we also have to acknowledge that we are pretty freakin’ talented.  Men do this much more than women.  But ladies, we need to start giving ourselves some credit when we knock it out of the park.  Like I always say, “Show some Swagger”
  4. Leaders adapt and pressure is a privilege.  We should be excited about the challenges in our lives and face them head on, with confidence.  – Ann Moore
  5. The most important decision in our lifetime is who we choose to marry.  Frances Frei says, “Plan A, marry the person who energizes you and inspires you to be a better person.  Plan B is to surround yourself with a team of people who do the same.”  No matter who I spoke with this weekend, a key theme I heard is that a happy, supportive spouse played a critical role in each woman’s livelihood,  career success and family health.  Many of the husbands described were willing to help do the laundry and take care of the kids so that these high-achieving women didn’t have to “lean back” from their own careers. – Sheryl Sandberg

Now go CRUSH this week #GRIT

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