Over the last couple of weeks, friends, clients, family and co workers have broken some pretty amazing self barriers~
One just ran his first marathon after losing 20 pounds! Another juiced for 3 days (extracting pulp, following an extremely difficult plan, prepping for 3 hours a day and didn’t deviate for one moment…without the use of a juicer). One ran his best PR in a Thanksgiving day race! One decided to increase her level of expertise and took more educational courses in 2 months than most professionals take in 2 years and still managed to take care of her health and wellbeing! And another finally let go of gluten about 3 months ago and lost the 10 pounds she’s been holding on to for most of her life.
These are just a handful of people I know who each day, reach new benchmarks in fitness, wellness and health; yet even more importantly they have reached new heights because of their mental strength. We all have this within us and some days and weeks we seem to reach it more easily than others. I notice when we have a hard time pushing ourselves, that’s when we need to look to others to help us raise the bar.
This past Thanksgiving, I ran an 8 mile turkey trot and there was a woman there, about 5 or 10 years older than me who I used as my pacer. I didn’t know her, but we ran together, me ahead of her, her ahead of me, until the last mile, she passed me and I couldn’t catch up. She beat me by 30 seconds or so. She motivated me for two reasons, one because she was older and the other because she had a prosthetic leg from her knee down! Her gait was fast and she wasn’t daunted by her disability and SHE BEAT ME! I loved it and I will always remember this.
It’s important to be inspired and to inspire. It’s vital to see what others accomplish, no matter if it’s something we aspire to do or not, but to notice that it’s important and big to them is enough to raise our own bar.
Notice this week those who have broken self barriers and see if you can break a few of your own!