Snatching, Self-Improvement, and Success.  Health and fitness, mindset, and money…

And here we go. Hello?  Hello?  Is this on?  Oh… okay…

So… how did I get here, who am I, and where is this going.

Well, here’s the story. I have been writing for a local newspaper… wait, no… I HAD been writing for a local newspaper called The Merrimack Journal up to the month of May 2012. I’d been with the paper for about a year, a year and a half. One article each month. I wrote articles on general fitness, with a highlight on weight training. My editor and publisher of the paper, Dr. Anthony G. Ziagos Sr, kept in touch with me fairly consistently during my time with “The Journal“. Great guy. He actually grew up locally with my mother, a major point that was not brought to light until maybe our third or fourth conversation. When he learned, incredulously, that I was, “Sharon’s son!”, he took a keen interest in helping me. Helping me develop my skills as a writer for a local paper. One of the things he pointed out about my writing is the need for me to be more concise. He requested repeatedly that my articles be 500-600 words. I could NOT, for the life of me, keep my total word count below 750. Most of my articles would quickly and easily reach nearly 1000 words. I’m working on it (being more concise in the way I provide information). Please, feel free to let me know how I’m doing…

Anyway, the punch line to this story is I had a conversation with Tony via email on May 21st, 2012, and was waiting for a reply, but by May 24th, 2012, Dr. Anthony G. Ziagos Sr had passed away. Sudden, surprising, extremely unfortunate and sad. A true loss. And it appears that the publication of The Merrimack Journal has also come to an end.

Commencement: the end of one thing, the start of something new.

I struggled sometimes with producing my monthly articles. I questioned it. “What am I doing this for?”, “What am I getting out of it for the time and energy I am investing?”.

“Don’t write then, sweetheart”, my fiancee, Katie, would say, trying to relieve my anxiety. “If it doesn’t make you happy, then don’t do it.” She has such a great way of breaking things down to black and white sometimes. I truly appreciate her no-nonsense thinking. And, 9 times out of 10, whatever I write that finally makes it to the public domain, has been read to her aloud by me (at least once). Her opinion of what I write is critical to my creative process and I adjust the writing based on her reactions and suggestions.

But I DO want to write.  I feel impelled to do so.  But, I didn’t think writing for another newspaper was the ideal choice for me. Newspapers seems to be dying out, don’t they? I mean the actually printed-on-paper-type of newspapers, not online newspapers. Everything is moving online, it seems. And now, so am I. I want to be where I can have the most impact.

So… that’s how I got here.

Who am I? Rather than compose some online shrine of self-aggrandizement for you to admire, I rather hope you will come to know me by my (fantastic) writing here on my shiny new blog. However, I would like to share something that I think is relevant and important… I really like the Snatch. You know, the Olympic weightlifting event? The movement called the Snatch? No? Google it. Type, “Olympics Snatch”.


Anyway, the point being that beginning October 1st, 2011, after almost 30 years of bodybuilding, powerlifting, and other general “meathead” activities like Regional Tug-O-War competitions, I decided to DEVOTE myself to a specific, simple goal. Snatch 300. Sounds real simple. No big deal, right? Hahaha… I recommend you try snatching sometime… if you never have, you are in for a shocker.

When setting a goal, more important than how you will get there is who you will be when you do.

I am in my 10th month of learning the Snatch and it has been one of the most productive endeavors of my entire career. Do you want to hear more about it?

We’ll get to it…