"I could never do that".....
I have lived in Louisville, KY my entire life and the Kentucky Derby has always been an exciting time of year. Our city comes alive with festivities and events which is kicked off every year with a series of races that include a 3 mile, 6 mile, 10 mile and a mini and full marathon. It’s an exciting season in our city which inspires thousands of men and women to participate. One year I decided to follow suit and I signed up to run all of the races including the mini marathon. As I began training, I was faced with the hard truth that I could only run about 3 miles before feeling like I was going to die! Seriously, I HATED running!!! Plus the races took place in the spring, which meant a lot of the training had to be done in the winter. I am NOT a fan of cold weather so this meant that I had to train on the boring treadmill or brave the freezing cold outdoor runs. Either way, I did not like doing it!!!
I found myself at a cross roads of pushing through and facing the challenge to improve my endurance or believing the current thought that "I couldn't do it because it was too hard" and that “I didn’t like running” which would have me giving up on my goal. I decided to push through (with the help of a determined running partner) and began to train for my first mini marathon. I started by running 3 miles (because that was what I could do without feeling like I was being tortured) and slowly increased my time and distance. I found a love for it. I enjoyed the sweat. I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment after every run that was longer than the last. I enjoyed watching myself get stronger. I enjoyed pushing myself. Was it hard? YES!!! But it was worth it!!! I still feel that since of accomplishment when I think back to the mental and physical challenges I overcame in order to meet that goal!
I want to remind you that on day 1 of my training I looked at the end goal of 13.1 miles and said “there is no way I’ll be able to do that”, but since I had already signed up and paid for the races I decided I might as well commit to the training schedule. After a few days of training I was able to witness my body getting stronger and my endurance increasing, which made the possibility of 13.1 miles even more believable. It DID NOT happen over night….it took days, weeks and months to get me to the finish line!
I choose to share this story with you because I wanted you to have an example of a limiting belief that was slow to change. I didn’t wake up one day and decide that I could run 13.1 miles and just go out and do it. I decided that I wanted to do it and set an action plan to achieve it. It included a ton of supporters that reminded me of the strength they saw that I often lost focus of. But mostly, it started with the decision that I wanted to do it and then I had to choose to believe that I could, even when my brain was telling me otherwise. I physically couldn’t do it on day one which is probably why so many people think they “can’t do it” at all. NOT TRUE!!! You just have to decide exactly what it is that you are wanting and not believe the lies that your brain is convinced are truths! I identified many limiting beliefs during this time frame including “If 3 miles is this hard, I could never run 6 miles" and “I don’t have time to train” and “my legs hurt, I need to stop running”. If I would have believed myself I would have never ran 6 miles, or 10 miles, and definitely never 13.1 miles.
Another example of limiting beliefs showing up in my life is when my friend told me she was doing the whole 30 (a series of 30 days where you remove select food groups from your diet). The intention is to illuminate foods that cause inflammation in your body so that when you re-introduce them you can see how your body responds. Since I am very interested in overall health and providing my body the nutrition that will result in feeling good and staying healthy I was immediately intrigued by the concept however the first words out of my mouth were "I could never do that", "I could never give up alcohol", "I could never give up sugar", "I could never get up chips". Well, fast-forward about three months and I decided that I was ready to challenge myself. I decided to do the whole 30 along with my husband. And guess what, I did it! Was it challenging? YOU BET! But I again learned that I could do anything I put my mind to! Are you seeing a trend yet? My initial response was to say that I couldn’t do something but later I decided to commit, establish a plan and execute the plan. I also chose to partner with someone that wanted the same goal that I did, that way we could push each other when those limiting beliefs popped up….because they always do!!!
Since I have learned about limiting beliefs and how they are simply thoughts that I can choose to believe or not, I have been able to identify them throughout my day. I even started noticing posts on Facebook that caught my attention. Every time I saw a post about someone waking up at 5 AM to get their workout in for the day, I would think "I could never do that" and "I’m not a morning person". Fast forward several months later and I am now getting up at 5 o’clock four days a week to participate in a bootcamp class and the funny thing is that I now get excited about it! What changed??? My thoughts!!! I DECIDED that I wanted to wake up at 5:00 am to give myself the uninterrupted time to workout because it is critical for my sanity. I had noticed that I wasn’t consistent with afternoon workouts and was often distracted with household tasks or kids activities and missing out on workouts left me feeling sluggish and often overwhelmed. So rather than using my usual crutch of “I don’t have time” and staying in the struggle, I chose to make time. I choose to make my bedtime routine a priority so that I can make my early morning workout a priority.
Again, it started with me recognizing the desire, then committing to believing a thought that would get me to the end result and surrounding myself with accountability for when the obstacles appeared. The important thing to notice is that your thought has to be one that is aligned with accomplishing your goal. I had to believe that I could do it in order to act on that desire with confidence. If I stayed in the limiting belief of my inability to do something I would have never taken action that would have led me to the result of completing the goal.
What limiting beliefs can you identify in your life?
“I don’t have enough money”
“I don’t have enough time”
“I don’t know how to get started”
“Nobody will support me in going after my dream”
“I’m not smart enough”
“I’m not good enough”
The list goes on!!! We have THOUSANDS of limiting beliefs that come up in our lives and I want to encourage you to recognize them so that WHEN they come up, you will be able to identify them and make the CHOICE to believe the thought that you want to believe. The thought that will get you to the goal that you are dreaming of! I encourage you to share your dreams and desires with those that love and support you and allow them to pour belief into you, especially when you don’t believe it yourself.
If this sounds familiar and you would like to dig a little deeper into identifying limiting beliefs in your life or how to choose the thoughts that you want to believe, I would love to offer you a free consultation call! On this call we will work together to identify those pesky thoughts that continue to keep you from taking massive action in your life and then we will work together to create new thoughts for you to implement into your day to day practice! Shoot me a message at kristiemhanke@gmail.com.
Leaving you with love,
Kristie