I want to be just like Amy Elliot Dunne

My last post was about never giving up. Lately, I’ve been squint-eyed and fixated about such things as

• Drive & Motivation
• Determination & Commitment
• Perseverance & Stick-to-itiveness
• Punching-bag-itiveness (I’ll explain)

and basically anything that moves people to try and try and try and try and try again until they to get what they want. Their dreams I mean. Not awful things like revenge and murder (I know what you’re thinking, where is she going with this? I’ll circle back to this – stay with me.)

I am inspired by everything around me. And this week, it’s a fictional character from a New York Times Best-Selling novel.

If you are reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and don’t want me to spoil what you find out about a 1/3 of the way through the book then close this post, read the book, and open the post later. You’ll know when it’s the right time. And just so you don’t see anything down below, here’s a very large photo of my recent trip to Puerto Rico to block any possible spoilers.

Warning: Spoiler Alert (scroll down to continue…)

Picture this. Man meets woman. Man marries woman. Tough life circumstances happen. Man becomes stressed, complacent, and cheats on woman with his 23-year-old graduate student. Then cheated-on-woman disappears.

And sets up her husband for her own murder intending that he’s caught, tried, and fried. Yes, typical boy meets girl story.

I want to be just like Amy Elliot Dunne who spent a year, maybe more, plotting, planning, and carefully laying out her plan to frame her cheating spouse for her own murder – which never happened. She spends 12-months creating seven years of misleading diary entries, messing with bank accounts and purchases, creating a fake persona with the neighbors, collecting pregnant-urine unsuspectingly to leave proof of her own fake pregnancy. She plants evidence all over town, gouges herself with a knife and bleeds all over the kitchen floor then cleans it up with bleach just well enough not to be seen without Luminol.

Says the sleazy Big Town Attorney to the suspected husband-client, “‘Is she crazy, Nick? What you’re talking about, it’s crazy. You hear me? It would have taken, what, six months, a year, to set all this up. She’d have had to hate you, to wish you harm – ultimate, serious, horrific harm – for a year. Do you know how hard it is to sustain that kind of hatred for that long?”‘

Wow. Dedication. And commitment. That’s what it takes.

I want to be just like Amy Elliot Dunne who does everything for a reason, with purpose, deliberateness and precision. A self-disciplined woman who’s determined to get what she wants – murder and revenge.

I also don’t want to be AT ALL like Amy Elliot Dunne…

“I am a cheating weak-spined, woman-fearing coward, and I am the hero of your story…” narrates the husband character, “…because the woman I cheated on – my wife, Amy Elliot Dunne – is a sociopath and a murderer.”

So what the heck does this have to do with Living Beyond The Mat; my purpose, my heart and soul, my yoga students and my wellness clients you ask? I admire those who can remain so focused on a goal, a dream, that no matter how hard they get punched (like the clown) at each turn, when each obstacle threatens to destroy their path in front of them, they stand up, dust off their yoga pants, and try again. (Punching-bag-itiveness).

…and i want you to too.

My name is Rebecca. I help people to stand up on one leg, balance, and stand back up when life’s breezes (or hurricanes) knock them off center.

Now go read the book. It’s very fun. And if you don’t like to read, I hear Reese Witherspoon will be playing Amy Elliot Dunne soon enough in the movies.