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.

Sometimes You Just Need to Say “YES!”

Butterflies

I’m sitting here writing this with butterflies swirling around in my stomach. I’ve just said “YES” to something I don’t know how I’m going to do it…AND I’m so excited!

For a while now I’ve had a nagging feeling that I’ve needed to step up my game, do more, have a goal and yet part of me has resisted it.

I was telling myself that I needed time/space to just “be” and grow my business and be a mom and do all of this stuff which I love and yet I just wasn’t feeling like “me” – do you ever feel that way?

All weekend I was kinda moody, distracted, and had wandering thoughts. You see it was Ironman Canada weekend and I had originally planned on being in Penticton to cheer on the people I know doing it but life had other plans for me (sick kids, cold, back to work for my husband and so on). So I didn’t go.

I’ve been talking with a few of my friends and colleagues about my desire to do Ironman Canada again.  That’s me in the picture above. It was taken as I crossed the finish line of IMC in 2005.  Since then I’ve gotten married, had two kids, moved three times, completed a massive home renovation, and started my own business. It feels like that moment was a life time ago.

Anyways, I’ve been talking about signing up for Ironman again but honestly I just didn’t know how I could do it – it requires SO much training (for anyone who doesn’t know an Ironman consists of a 4km swim, 180km bike ride and 42.2km run) and with two little kids, a business to nurture, a home to look after and not a lot of help (no family/nanny/driver/chef etc.) I sometimes feel tapped as it is.

So it was interesting at how annoyed I felt about not being there – somewhere in the back of my mind I think I knew I wanted to sign up and by not going it meant that I’d be putting off this goal for another year.

And then I got an email from a client who said she’d just registered online which usually is never an option as IMC sells out the day after race day and you typically have to be there in person to register. So I quickly went and checked to see if registrations were still being accepted. They were. My heart beat quickened, my excitement grew and I’m sure my eyes dilated as I talked to Mat about what it would mean for our family if I made this commitment to myself. And then I registered.

I am officially signed up to compete in Ironman Canada 2011!!!!!

I’m nervous, scared, excited, and feel totally alive right now.  And here’s what I know – sometimes you have to say “YES” to the things in life that light you up even when they seem impossible to do.  So often we say things like:
“No” or
“Later” or
“Next year” or

“Maybe” or

“Not now” or

“I’m not ready yet” or

“I’ll think about it” or…you get the idea.

And when this happens, when we chose to play it safe or keep small we squelch something amazing that we could experience. When we decide to not make a commitment to something we miss out on fully experiencing our life. And sometimes when we feel pulled we’ll try to be logical and rational and figure out the “how’s”:

• “How am I going to do this?”

• “How am I going to fit this in?”

• “How will I find the time”

And when our brain is desperately trying to process the answers but they’re not coming up quick enough we’ll immediately jump to the “What ifs…”

• What if I can’t do this?

• What if I fail?

• What if I can’t find child care?

• What if I quit?

• What if I get injured?

• What if I look stupid?

As you can imagine these two streams of thought are enough to stop you from doing anything. No brain can fight this and that saboteur voice in your head knows this and that’s how he/she gets you to stay small and play it safe.

So forget about the “how’s” and “what ifs” and start paying attention to your feelings – if you’ve been thinking about doing something for a while and you’ve been letting your thoughts stop you simply commit. It’s the first step.  After that, everything falls into place.

If you do decide to go for something that you’ve been longing to do – let me know! I’d love to hear what it is – just drop down into the comments section below.

Here’s to saying “yes” even when you feel like saying “no”!