Sixty is the new forty!
Today I attempted something that up until 4 months ago never would have crossed my mind. Today I did a half-marathon in NYC.
A girlfriend, Yolanda Lowe, had suggested this but I initially thought it was outrageous. It was so not how I saw my exercise program going. After walking numerous times from 3-4 miles she convinced me 13.1 was a piece of cake. So, along with 6 others we went to NYC for the weekend.
My first thought in writing this blog is how many of you have “fallen into” something that you never would have thought of previously as being remotely possible? How many of you risked making it happen anyway?
As I made it to the 4th mile flag I found myself creating justifications for stopping at 6 miles. This is my first attempt. It is acceptable to stop at 6.” My lungs hurt I don’t want to overdo.” When those were only half way heard I then simply decided that topping made sense since I would be holding up the two who were walking with me. Like a saint I tried to convince myself that it would charitable to stop and let them fly past if they wanted to.
How often have you found ways to justify not going all out? How often have you found “acceptable” reasons (excuses) for not taking the risk in front of you when it was really what you wanted? Is it fear of succeeding or fear of failure?
I found myself jumping to “If you quit now your kids will be let down by you.” “If you quit now people will know you are all words and no action.” “If you quit now how could you ever, in integrity, tell a client or patient to follow their dreams regardless?” Thankfully I have done enough inner work to know that beating myself up, creating lies my healthy self knew were false, as a means/tool for going forward was not in the least bit healthy. How long does it take you to get that message so clearly?
With the final thought of, it is irrelevant what others think or say since this is my dream and my choice to stop and try again another year or to go forward solely because I wanted to, for me. At the 6 mile decision point I decided, with the support of phenomenal marathon partner, Marianne Esposito, to go for it. With a few moments of angst later, especially as we came to mile 10 with what had been called the toughest hill of the course, Marianne’s encouragement and support reminded me so clearly that many years ago I thought I had to do everything alone but had later realized that we all need others in our corner, AND we need to let them in. Marianne and I made it to the finish line together, encouraging others along the way who needed our support to keep going. We were a group of 12,000 women, doing what we do, supporting a cause and supporting each other.
And, I made it!!!!! I have done my first half-marathon! I finished and I have my first medal to show for it.
Already we are talking of starting this week to train for the full marathon in October. My motto, my brand, is Anything is Possible. Today shows me, yet again, how true that is.
Whatever your dream, your goal, know that truly Anything is Possible, especially when you let others support you along the way. We all have our stuff come up, those messages that could easily sabotage wherever we want to go in our life. They say nothing about us – especially when we take their power away by claiming it for ourselves. My wish for you is that you find that goal, that dream, and regardless of what inner messages show up – you go for it.
