20 under 40: JONATHAN CRENSHAW

Favorite quote or saying, why?

“Be excellent everyday for 25 years and you’ll be an overnight success.’ – Dave Ramsey

We can easily overlook the long, not so glamorous road that led to what we see today. I know I do. It can often seem like the result happened overnight. However that’s rarely the case. It was striving for excellence in the little, seemingly unimportant things, day in and day out, that overtime produced results. I love the perspective this statement can bring and the encouragement it can provide to be excellent in the ordinary.

Community or professional highlights:

I love what I’ve been given the opportunity to do. I’m blessed to work and serve with some amazing people. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we work together. I have the opportunity to lead an amazing team at Get Fit Modesto. It is even more of an honor that I get to do it with my wife Tara. It is so rewarding to be able to do life with our team. We never had plans to be small business owners. I think God has a sense of humor. I also have the great privilege of serving our community as a fire engineer with SCFPD. I’m proud to be a part of a great department that is constantly changing to meet the needs of the communities we serve.

Get Fit has exponentially grown over the past 4 years. This growth serves a bigger purpose than just a bottom line. Since 2015 Get Fit has raised/donated over $90,000 that has gone straight back into our local community through our partnerships with local nonprofits like: Without Permission, Boys and Girls Club of Stanislaus County, Chemo Crew, Feed Modesto and many others.

We have been able to partner with many great people, organizations, and businesses in our community. We have partnered with great local restaurants around town to provide healthy eating options to enjoy when eating out. We love our local restaurant partners and want to encourage people to eat local, eat healthy and socialize!

We have been able to support great events that are held in our community like the Modesto Marathon, Peace Officers Memorial Run, Love Modesto, and Modesto on Ice. Last year, thanks to a grant from Kaiser Permanente, we were able to provide after school programs for 5 schools within Modesto City Schools. Another project that is near to our heart is our Challenge Fit Program. We have partnered with Athletes for Adoption to help raise funds for local families seeking to adopt. We offer a comprehensive 4-week training program by a Spartan certified instructor to help people prepare for Spartan Races. This program is open to anyone in our community for a donation that 100% goes back to Athletes for Adoption.

I have had the opportunity to serve on the board for Interfaith Ministries and One Church. I am grateful to have been surrounded by some great people during my service and learned a lot.

Your life changed when:

I feel like there is so many ways to answer this question. Life is constantly changing. That’s the one thing we can be sure of. Things will always change. We just have to choose how we are going to change with it. We will pursue growth and change for the better or will we stay the same and regress. I think my life changed when I made the decision that I want to grow in all areas in my life. It is a serious commitment, which if I’m honest, is difficult to keep sometimes. I want to be the best husband, father, brother, son, friend, and leader I can be. Just writing it down can feel overwhelming. We were created to have life and live it abundantly. I may not reach the goal every time but I’m always working toward it. It’s easy to get distracted, especially when there are so many good things to choose from. The pursuit of growth has changed my life and given me a completely new perspective on using my time to pursue things that are most important to me.

What do you want people to know most about you?

I can’t help but think about great advice that was shared with me in my early twenties. I’ll never forget it. Applying it is easier said than done sometimes, but the thought was this, “You shouldn’t care what a lot of people think about you, but should really care about what a few people think about you.” I take my role as a husband and father as my top priority. I do my best to live my life in a way that honors God and provides an example to my three boys. If I don’t succeed in any other area of my life and accomplish that, I will consider my life well lived. That is the legacy I hope to leave behind.

What do you like most about living here?

That’s easy. The PEOPLE! There are so many great people in this community! We are so blessed to have so many family and friends! A house is just a house. A city is just a city. It’s the people that make the home and for that reason we are thankful to call Modesto home.

Why is community involvement important?

We talk about this often on our team. If we were to close our doors tomorrow, would we be missed? Not just by the people who fill our four walls, but by the people who have never stepped foot into our building? Would the community miss us? Are we doing our part to make the community we live in better? Am I doing my part to make our community better? We were not created to live life alone. We need each other. Everyone has been gifted with different talents and abilities and incredible things can happen when we come together for common purpose. Community involvement is so important because without it there is no community. It is just occupying space together. We are lucky to live in a community where there are so many opportunities to get involved.

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 10:35 AM with the headline "20 under 40: JONATHAN CRENSHAW."