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Commitment & Confidence Go Hand In Hand

I’ve got a little story to share.

As most of you know I signed up for Ironman Canada 2011. I did the race five years ago and was just really feeling like I needed to have my own goal again, something just for me.

A month ago it seemed like a really great idea and I was super excited about it.

Then October happened and it was probably the busiest month I’ve had ever. And for a million reasons (all of them legit) I blew off all of my workouts last week. Every single one of them. So I vowed that I’d re-examine my schedule and get things figured out for this week.

Then Monday rolled around and once again I felt like I had a “to-do” list a mile long and the only thing that could be shoved off of it was my workout.
Then it was Tuesday and at 8:45pm last night I still hadn’t done my workout AND I didn’t want to. It would have been really, really easy to justify not doing it again.

But I didn’t.

I made a commitment to myself and by not showing up I was starting to lose my confidence that I could really do this. So, I downloaded some mp3′s and headed to the gym for a 50 minute run on the treadmill.

As I walked home at 10:00pm I felt so proud that I overcame what felt like a lot of resistance and got my butt off my chair.

A magical thing happened too – I got my confidence back. Instead of thinking “Holy crap, I don’t think I can do this. It’s going to be too hard, I’m going to be too tired.”
I was thinking “Oh yeah – you can do it, it’s going to feel challenging sometimes but you can so do this!”

And here’s my learning — it’s really easy to slip, get stuck or break promises to yourself but what matters most is what you do AFTER that happens. Do you continue making excuses and letting yourself down or do you change?

It’s really easy to do nothing and to stay comfortable and to justify what you’re not doing. But let me share with you that it does NOT make you feel any better. In fact, breaking a promise or commitment to yourself makes you feel worse.

The way you follow through on things that are important to you matters!

So, if there’s anything that you’ve let slide in your life that you know is important to you, what’s one thing you could do today to get back on track?

Drop down into the comments section below and share what that step is going to be – and if you need a little encouragement or a little nudge let me know how I can help.

What Defines You?

What Defines You?

I’m a mom to two young children (an almost 3 yr old and a 9 mo), I’m also a wife and an entrepreneur. I’m sure I could find 10 other “titles” or “roles” to define me but that’s the thing – they’re just labels.

I am more than my “roles”. I am more than my “titles”.

I believe that our whole self is greater than the sum of our parts of self (labels, titles) yet when we become mothers, whether it’s consciously or not, we tend to give up, abandon, sacrifice, lose, put on hold – choose whatever word you want, parts of our self.

We stop thinking about our own personal goals and dreams, we stop doing things for ourselves, and we stop paying attention.

It may not happen right away and we may not even care at first.

But here’s the thing – when you ignore pieces of your self that fundamentally make you feel like “you” your whole self starts to shrink and whither. And eventually if feels like you’re a shell of the woman that you were before you had kids.

I noticed this for myself after my second child was born. I’d have a window of time I could go and do something just for me like head to the gym, or go for a run and I found myself saying crazy things like, “Oh, yeah, I guess I could go but I need to get the laundry done” (or the floor washed, or make dinner or whatever other weird thing came out of my mouth). And I could feel myself starting to slip away a little bit – NOT COOL.

So, I made some changes. I signed up for my first half marathon since having kids and created a training program. Guess what – I’m running all the time now. I’ve said “no” to a few things so I could say “yes” to doing something for me.

Has anybody else out there felt this way? Is there any particular “role” in your life that feels consuming for you? Which one? What could you say “no” to in order to create some space in your life for you? Please leave me a comment below – I’d love to get this conversation started!