3 Ways to Expand Your Limits

I had a physiotherapy appointment last week to review my progress and something very unexpected happened!  An epiphany!!

My physiotherapist and I were chatting about the level of pain I was having and how this was better or worse since I’d been doing my physio exercises.  I was explaining that I’d been doing yoga the night before and I’d started to get uncomfortable pain so I’d pulled back and hadn’t completed some of the yoga activities.  My physiotherapist said, ‘so you stop when you get pain?’ and we carried discussing how I normally handle that.

Then my physiotherapist started to explain that some pain was good, and that I woundn’t damage my body by having some pain.  He also explained that going slightly beyond pain that each time would enable my current physical limit to be expanded.

Well…a light bulb went off in my head!!  I thought YES I am limiting myself because when I feel discomfort/pain or what I judge as ‘too much’, I become fearful I will damage my body – so I stop.  Then I pondered a very important question…where else do I do this in my life?  Where else, when I reach my ‘comfortable’ level of discomfort, do I pull back?

This was an extremely exciting observation for me and since then I’ve been intrigued.  As I result I have been actively practising being with my ‘discomfort’.  How often in our work and personal lives do we pull back, disconnect or avoid if we are out of our comfort zone?  Will this ultimately limit personal and leadership development?

In the case of my physio, this is actually really important because to reach improved resilience and strength my body needs to go beyond its current limits.

So consider these 3 things to question and expand your limits:

• Discomfort – what makes you uncomfortable and what would it take to move beyond this discomfort?
• Truth – what are you fearful will happen if you move beyond your current comfort level, what’s worse case scenario?  Is this true, really?
• Next Step – What is 1 thing you could do to practise stepping beyond your current limit?

Come and explore how to get beyond your current limits in a FREE online preview for The Power of Purpose course with me on Wednesday 27^th April 6:30-8pm.  You will be encouraged to explore where your current limits are and how this is affecting your results.

Change your behaviour, change your results…Go on, take a risk!

FREE Online Preview…book here: Book FREE Power of Purpose Preview

Disaster or Discernment?

I realised this week, partly due to the face that I’ve been ill for some of it, that I’m in severe danger of going into overwhelm.  All was going very well, firing on all cylinders and then suddenly I’m ill and off the radar for a few days.  Then all the requests for my time seem to be coming at once.  Straight away my mind starts to go down the…I have to do it all now!…road…

It takes something doesn’t it to stop, notice and say no to staying in this mindset.  And then pops up the old FOMO (fear of missing out), I had that today.  I had booked into an event – and one which may have been great networking for one of the areas than I am passionate about working in.  In my overwhelm I have to go or else I’m never going to get another opportunity – and if I don’t go my mind ultimately has it that I’m going to be a total useless failure.  WoW!

So it sure does take a big part of me to say no to carrying on down that road and trusting that all will be well whatever I choose to do (or not).  This is very common isn’t it?  It can be for me, running from one thing to the next…thinking I can’t miss anything or not get everything done or else something disastrous will happen.  Thing is for me right now, taking care of myself and getting back to 100%…firing on all those cylinders is important.

So here’s a few questions to check-in and check-out those thoughts and assumptions:

• Priorities – what’s in the mix?  What’s really important and why?  What can wait?
• Reality – what’s the worst case scenario?  How would you handle it if it happened?
• Discernment – are all those things really urgent for NOW?  What 3 things can you do next to move one of your priorities forward?  Including the possibility of course correcting deadlines…
• Support – what support can you ask for, reach out for and put in place to support YOU with all that you are striving for

So next time you your mind is in ‘disaster’ overwhelm, take a moment to check-in with yourself and consider saying no or not now to something so you can say YES to yourself.

Come and explore how to learn life changing tools to release overwhelm, in a warm and welcoming environment, in my FREE online taster session for The Power of Purpose course.

Join me for an FREE online taster session on Tuesday 29^th March 6-8pm.

I’d love to see you there…

FREE tickets here: Book FREE Online Taster for Power of Purpose

Renovate or Resist?

I’m teaching one of favourite courses at the moment – The Power of Purpose.  This is a course I am extremely passionate about, the tools have the propensity to completely shift one’s state from limiting fear to open possibility.  This is transforming, both for life and in terms of what each of us creates in the world.

Whenever I am teaching this course my learning is always rich and evoking.  This week I am almost seeing a beauty in how the very thing I am teaching about is being played out in parallel before me in other projects I am working on.

All this has reminded me of a big project I passionately wanted to create a while back – my hope (or as it turned out expectation) was that I would be met with open arms, trust, support, encouragement, acknowledgement – the reality was fear, limits, scarcity, bullying, exclusion.  What a difference!  I’m not suggesting questions or concerns weren’t hugely valuable (or indeed that ultimate outcome wasn’t what was exactly required),however it was the approach and attitude made a huge difference to me.  There was a lot of fear, a lot of focus on what wasn’t enough and how things were had been done in the past.  And there is a ripple effect – that ongoing attitude makes a huge difference to the results for myself and others.

And this difference has an impact on the bigger picture, the longer term results and ultimately sustainability for organisations.

When we operate out of fear our attention will likely be focused on one or more of the following:

• Holding on tightly – maintaining, protecting something or an ideal which we think will be lost if we let go or embrace something different, especially something more radical
• Resistance – to the new, different ideas, different paths, anything opposing our ‘ideal’ or current belief about how something should be or look like
• Saying NO – pushing back, holding onto our ideal at all costs and picking holes in anything outside of this

There is a BIG cost to operating from such a fearful place, such as:

• Impossibility – through the sheer focusing on what isn’t, openness is narrowed and ultimately willingness to see what is possible outside of what we know
• Innovation – this requires openness, curiosity, willingness to take risks. How likely is this if we are focused on holding onto an ideal?  How likely are we to get creative and resourceful?
• Alignment with reality – when we focus on what isn’t and holding onto an ideal we are not aligned with the reality of what IS. Something may not be working, particularly if we are not getting the results we want. We are missing the opportunity to get on with correcting this as our attention is on what
• Engagement – from others, customers, partners, stakeholders, communities, supporters. How likely is it that others are going to want to be on board with such a fearful (negative) attitude?

I see a parallel … or some call it ‘you reap what you sow’.  I’m not suggesting in any way that there is a perfect approach, just that the approach we take and attitude we give out is reflected back.  Again and again.

So next time your results aren’t what you like them to be, take a moment to think about what you are resisting, saying no to or holding onto tightly.

Check out these 3 reflective questions:

• Payoff – what do I get from holding onto how I think something should be? Or resisting being open to different ways forward?
• Truth – what’s my worst case scenario? It is true (100%) that my fear will actually happen?
• Cost – what is the cost to me and my organisation of holding onto what was? What opportunity may we be missing in the present?

Be curious, be open…see what happens…

Come and explore how to release move your state from fear to creative possibility, in a warm and welcoming environment, in my FREE online taster session for The Power of Purpose course.

Join me for an FREE online taster session on Wednesday 23^rd March 6-8pm.

I’d love to see you there…

FREE tickets here: Book FREE Online Taster for Power of Purpose

What are you procrastinating about…?

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