We’re looking forward to introducing you to Angie Carrera. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Angie, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The alarm goes off at 3:50 am.
Cold water splashes on my face. It’s dark out. The world is quiet.
Warmth. My body changes into gym clothes. I make my way back to my bed to pray and meditate.
My stomach grumbles. Time to weigh everything out: 250 grams of egg whites, a whole egg, 40 grams of oats, my green juice and supplements.
My female tendencies follow – hair, skin –
It’s 4:45 – time to head to the gym.
The garbage truck is waiting at the stop light.
The red of the stoplight reflects against the black of the asphalt.
I walk into the gym and know nothing else matters right now.
All my focus is on my muscles moving through each rep.
Mostly until I can’t take it anymore.
Then I do it again.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello, my name is Angie Carrera. Through my own experience as an attorney, I give busy people real strategies to achieve their wellness goals through online personal training. I also create content around fitness, fashion, and Latinidad.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
The relationship I had to develop with myself in order to interview for summer positions during law school.
When you’re in an institution that puts highly intelligent and competitive people together, imposter syndrome and confidence issues can creep in.
Even more so when you are told that you have to compete for coveted “big law” positions.
As a person who grew up in a small business and various sales jobs, a product I could sell.
But how was I supposed to convince these interviewing attorneys that I was what they were looking for?
Simple. I had to view myself as the asset, while presenting the asset.
As soon as I developed a sales pitch for myself, my confidence grew enormously.
I created a play book. Every question. My strengths. Weaknesses. Opportunities.
It finally landed me that big law position.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering is optional, pain is inevitable. Suffering is a choice to relive the past. Pain is in the moment.
Success involves pain (of failure) but not necessarily suffering.
Bodybuilding as a practice have both (all) baked in.
Suffering is also a deliberate choice to repeat action or thought which brings about discomfort.
It is not guaranteed we will succeed.
It is guaranteed we will fail.
Despite this, we go to the gym every day to put our bodies through the same pain.
When this pain is repeated, over and over, it becomes suffering.
Suffering is transformed into practice.
We practice suffering to understand the connection between our minds and bodies.
The limitations and boundaries both push the other to move.
When these are consistently tested, there is growth.
To suffer is
To know the art –
To understand growth –
To love pain –
To know success breeds complacency –
That our greatest gifts are –
Pain and Suffering.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
The ever long pursuit for the acquisition of knowledge.
Perhaps born out of the saying “that knowledge is power” and a life of insatiable hunger.
Not all goals or projects must have an end. Rather, there are some projects we must assign the tile of our “life’s work” in order to justify to ourselves their pursuit.
Why else would I draw a never-ending motley list of topics that seems incoherent and erratic on its best day.
There are many things to learn before this life is over.
There is not enough time to learn everything.
The more I learn, the more I realize I know nothing at all.
As I consume words, I realize it’s more than power I want.
It’s a Home,
In a solitary life, the words of a favorite author come as familiar whisper.
So maybe it’s for power, maybe it’s curiosity, and maybe it’s to feel a little less alone.
All I know for certain is when the right knowledge is in the right hands,
there is change.
That’s Power.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I’m not one to say, but I can attest to the depth of the relationship I have with Death and Time.
Our only promised at the end of this life is Death.
We’re born. The clock starts.
Every moment is a moment against it.
We as humans have control over our perception of time – mostly overlooked.
We have the ability to slow time – when we’re bored, unhappy, or otherwise negatively engaged.
We have the ability to speed time up – when we enter flow state and are aligned in the moment.
Yet so many of us live in the past or the future.
Our worries are in the past or the future.
Actions are passed or future.
By the time Death arrives, we’ve hardly spent Time practicing presence.
Let alone making the most of the Time we had while alive.
Our ability to control anything is Now.
To act with intention in this moment?
That’s a Force.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.angiecarrera.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/angie_carrera98/
Image Credits
Some Photos by: Connor Crowe Photography and Dave Hawks Photography
