It may seem impossible

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it” -W. Mitchell

Last year I did not sign up for a long distance triathlon. At first I was upset about it, but got over it by watching others suffer on long rides and runs while sipping iced tea on the deck. On race day, I felt little remorse.

This year I went to sign up for a race, and after looking at the price tag, lack of time and motivation and decided not to sign up. Call me lazy…go ahead…it’s OK…

Now some of my buddies are in the thick of training. Many hours in the pool, on the saddle or on the road. Stress levels are climbing.

I look at my weeks and ask myself “Self, how did you carve 20-25 hours out of each week?” Myself has no answers. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it. At one point, I had trained and completed 140.6 distance triathlons while opening new business’ and had a life. Kudo’s to me, because I did accomplish what seemed impossible at the time.

But, I did what I had to do to get it all done, and sometimes it didn’t get all done.

So, what does my story have to do with you?

Lots.

You probably are looking at a few “impossible” tasks right now. Some may be related to race day and some not. You may be thinking “it’s impossible for me to run that fast” or “others may be able to race that distance, but not me” Or, their kids were born great right out of the box. Mine have terrorist tendancies.

Unfortunately, the word “but” means everything. It is what you say after the “but” that matters. Example is I would sign up for that race, but….

Impossible is what the old folks are looking at while in the nursing home. They have good reasons for their “but’s”. However, it is amazing to me how many do get up and conquer their fears and issues and move on. (yes, some don’t and several die)

So, maybe instead of thinking about why you can’t do something, or stewing on what is a problem, why not change your thinking to what you can do? Why not have a little bit of courage and push yourself into something bigger than you think you can do?

A fun exercise is to make a list of all the things you would be, do and have if you knew you would not fail. What would that look like? It could be so exciting for you that you actually get off your “but” and do something about it!

To make it even more fun, draw a picture or make a plan of you doing the outrageous. It’s invigorating!

I once had the opportunity to listen to Warren Miller, the snow skier, make a speech while dedicating the High Campbell Basin restaurant at Crystal Mountain. He was quite old then and said “if you don’t do something so big each day that you almost pee yourself, you are not having enough fun”

Go ahead and get crazy. Have some fun. You have my permission...