Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Saul.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Emily. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am currently a co-leader of the November Project tribe in Boston. It was started in 2011 by Brogan Graham and Bojan Mandaric, both former rowers at Northeastern University in Boston. They were looking for a way to stay active and get the fitness they remembered from college days, while not having to pay crazy gym fees, and while trying to overcome the excuses that so easily crept in and kept them from getting up, working out, and having fun. They committed to working out every morning for a month (November), and holding each other accountable to stay in motion, to become “morning people,” to challenge themselves and race each other, and to be creative and have fun in their fitness. This evolved over the next several years into a tribe of hundreds of human beings in Boston who just show up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to climb stairs in Harvard Stadium, to run up and down the hills on Summit Ave. in Brookline, and to explore the opportunities for creative fitness in a different location around the city each week. There are now also 49 tribes of November Project around the world–in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia.
I became a co-leader of the Boston tribe in 2014, after the founders of NP asked me to take over their leadership in order for them to focus primarily on being the world-wide leaders of the bigger movement that was beginning to rapidly expand. My background is in sports, movement, and sport psychology. I was a rower at the University of Tulsa, then moved to Boston for graduate school to get a master’s degree in sport psychology. I was a strength & conditioning coach at Harvard for many years, while also working with children in an activity-based group counseling program in Newton, MA. I also currently work for the Life is Good Kids Foundation, as a Lead Playmaker, by spreading the power of optimism to help kids heal from the devastating impact of poverty, violence, and illness. Taking on a role of leadership at November Project was a culmination of the different aspects and interests in my life. It was the perfect combination of fierce fitness and an incredibly hard-working, open, and supportive community for me. I love the way that NP allows me to connect with, encourage and empower, and support people to grow as athletes and to develop their fitness and themselves.
It is through this journey with November Project that I’ve been inspired to also start my own business called E Saul Movement. I realized that something like NP was really helping so many people –including me– to use fitness and physical movement our lives—to be healthier, to achieve physical goals, to create counter-balance to life’s responsibilities, and even to experience joy, lightness, playfulness, and adventure. And while these practices have the potential to offer such rewards, we also often get in our own way by getting too much “in our heads” or by carrying out our practices routinely and mindlessly—which usually results in getting less out of it than we want. We find ourselves feeling frustrated and stuck, unmotivated, uninspired, lacking confidence, or doubting our potential. We might see our intentions getting blurry or feel our goals are “out of reach” and we don’t always know how to get over the hard spots. In this place, it’s hard to cultivate and experience the full potential we have within us. We are moving, but we want more.
E Saul Movement is a unique approach of sport psychology coaching with a foundation in counseling psychology, all focused on physical movement as the tool for unlocking forward movement in our lives.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nothing in life truly worth doing is easy. I couldn’t have been more honored or excited about becoming a co-leader of the Boston NP tribe, but stepping into the shoes of BG and Bojan as the founders, was a challenge bigger than their enormous shoes (BG wears size 16!). The transition from that very first generation of the movement was a rocky one at times, because there was natural and understandable sadness and disappointment that the original leaders were no longer there to bring their energy and personalities. Change is hard! But this time of change offered me a choice to try to lead exactly as I had seen my friends do it, or to find my way–to embrace my strengths as a leader and cultivate myself to the best of my ability as a force of strength, motivation, and energy that the tribe needed, while being completely authentic. I believe that the tribe knows how much I care about them and how deep my commitment is to helping grow the greater movement. I am not BG or Bojan, but my passion, my enthusiasm, and my dedication to NP and the tribe are clear and unwavering.
Additionally, we can’t overlook how challenging it is to simply get up and show up to NP three times a week, every week…always. There are days when I wake up and, just like everyone else, I don’t want to get out of bed. I don’t want to go move my body and work hard. I don’t want to push myself because I’d rather get a little more sleep! But finding the rhythm of sleep and effort–of going and resting–and of a personal balance between giving and receiving with NP has been important. It’s been essential for me along the way to work really well with my co-leaders to communicate and to support each other when we need a day away from NP or to care for ourselves if we’re not feeling well. It’s also been incredibly valuable to intentionally focus not only on what responsibilities I have to NP (what I give) but also to see each and every day what I receive from showing up, from my own workout with the tribe, from the amazing human beings around me who deeply inspire and motivate me. This gratitude and focus on all the good that comes from being a part of NP is absolutely what keeps me getting up in the morning, what keeps me doing all the other things behind the scenes of NP, and what fuels me to feel excited about all that is to come for NP.
Starting E Saul Movement is challenging because it’s scary to take a big risk and start something new! I’m hoping to provide a resource for people in an area that doesn’t get a lot of focus because fitness is usually just for fun, or something we do because we’re supposed to do to be healthy, but we don’t access it as a platform for creating space, opportunity, and growth in our lives. But this could be a really important access point for so many people who are involved in fitness, sport, and physical movement to influence great positive change in their lives.
Please tell us about November Project Boston.
November Project is changing the world. It’s changing people’s experiences with fitness and movement–not only because it’s providing high-quality, really fun workout experiences to human beings of all fitness levels for $0, but because it’s also creating communities that are positive, supportive, and highly motivating. These communities wouldn’t ordinarily exist because they draw together people from around the entire city, not just a singular neighborhood. NP is all about creating a worldwide community, which means everyone is welcome. We see a wide range of fitness levels, from never-before runners to Olympic athletes. We include all ages, as we just had someone celebrate their 80th birthday at a workout, and we just had our youngest member complete a “full tour” of Harvard Stadium at age 8. And the tribe is a beautiful collection of people with so many differences, but the unifying force is physical movement and fitness.
I’m incredibly proud to be a part of a movement that is making something that many people fear or hate — working out — and not only making it feel accessible but also fun, empowering, and rewarding.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Take risks, be willing to step into situations in which you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, and make friends with everyone. Connection is everything, especially when challenges are hardest.
Pricing:
- Free workouts
- $0 lifetime membership with a money-back guarantee
Contact Info:
- Website: www.november-project.com
- Instagram: @novemberprojectbos
- Facebook: November Project Boston
- Twitter: @nov_project_bos
Image Credit:
All photos permission of November Project
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