Motivational Monday - Fortune Cookie Inspirations

On the second night of the 2010 3-Day, to celebrate my 29th birthday, my boyfriend picked up some P.F. Chang's take-out and we had a dinner at home (sorry to everyone who enjoyed camp food in the rain) with walking partner Julie and my parents. The dinner ended with the perfect fortune cookie which said, "Tomorrow will be your day to lead others. Be inspirational." We carried this fortune with us for the last day of the 3-Day, inspired during the hardest moments, remembering that we walk not just for survivors, and not just to raise money for breast cancer research, but we also walk to help inspire others to join the 3-Day movement.

Who have you inspired and encouraged to participate in the 3-Day?

Motivational Monday

According to my 3-Day participant site, there are 47 days until the San Diego 3-Day. As it gets down to crunch time, where I realize that I need to up my fundraising efforts and really commit to my training walks, I am constantly looking for new ways to stay motivated.

I've shared a lot about how inspiring I have found Nancy G. Brinker's book Promise Me to be. Part of what inspires me to be involved in the movement to fight breast cancer is the history of the disease and the fact that we have come so far in such a short amount of time. When my grandmother was diagnosed in the 1070s survival rates were not as high. Today the five-year survival rate of women diagnosed with breast cancer is 89%. For those diagnosed early, before the cancer spreads, it is as high as 98% for five or more years.

The ever-improving rates of survival inspire me to get involved, stay involved, and do everything that I can help find a cure for cancer so that the women in my family and in my life will not go through what my grandmother and mother experienced.