Less Fear, More Possibility

One of my clients is facing a tough, important race she’s DNF’d before and isn’t sure she can do.

We’ve been improving her mindset about it and she was starting to truly believe she could do it when the email arrived.

The RD was changing the course to include significantly more climb.

She knew it - she’d allow herself to believe and something would go wrong. 

The race was hard enough…and now this!

Her knee-jerk reaction to the unpredicted change was normal.

As humans, we’re programmed to meet the new, different, unexpected and change with fear.

It’s habit.

Our human brains automatically try to keep us in the safe, easy, familiar, and predictable…even when that squashes our dreams. It points out all the reasons a change is threatening, and we believe it.

We’re so used to reacting this way, we don't even notice we’re doing it.

The result is we shut out possibilities, blind ourselves to solutions, and miss chances we dream of.

Long term, we stay the same.

It’s like someone handing you an all-expenses-paid, golden ticket entry to all the races you’ve ever dreamed of running…and instead of celebrating with joy, you look for the catch.

Unless…you spot this habit in action.

This is something I’ve worked on a lot recently in all parts of my life. Like many limiting beliefs, it’s one I grew up with and didn’t even see.

Changing it has transformed my running and my life. It’s opened my life up in amazing ways that just keep getting better.

My solution isn’t to adopt new things because they’re new or make changes just to change. 

I simply replace fear with possibility.

Instead of reacting with why something won’t work, what’s wrong with the idea, or why it’s not for me, I look beyond that for the possibility and opportunity in it. 

When I helped my client re-examine her course change from a place of possibility, we discovered that instead of making the race worse…the changes actually made it better.

She’d initially seen this as evidence the course would be impossible, but the RD added two hours to cutoff.

Her superpower is climbing so the extra elevation gain actually plays to her strength.

And instead of running them through the ugly parts she dreaded on the original course, the change takes them on prettier trails she loves.

Without reconsidering the fear, she would have gone into the race fearing it would be harder than it already was.

But when we finished looking for the good, she was excited.

Try it. When you feel the automatic resistance to something new - why you can’t, why it’s a problem, why it’s bad - set that aside for a moment and ask…

How could this be a good thing?

Be prepared. Breaking any long-practiced habit like this is awkward at first and you’ll be tempted to quit.

Having someone help you look for the good and keep you on track makes changing easier and faster. 

I’m here to help you every step of the way. 

Email me - let’s talk how.