‘People are not disturbed by things but by the view they take of them’ Epitecus
How often do you refuse to do something in your life because you know it will take you out of your comfort zone? Do you hear yourself think or say:-‘I can’t do this because it’s too scary,’ or, ’I won’t be doing that because I’m not clever enough/ not capable.’
I wonder if you have you ever taken that leap of faith and stepped out of that place you normally occupy, (because it feels safe and familiar) and then achieved what you previously thought would be out of the question. How did it make you feel? My guess is you were surprised at your own capabilities and felt empowered, but it’s maybe not too long before you creep back into that old, comfortable, safe place—what we coaches refer to as self-sabotaging behaviour and self-limiting beliefs which can turn into a self fulfilling prophesy.
If, on the other hand, you have never felt able to face your fears and push through the barrier, you may never appreciate what you are truly capable of.
Let me share a story with you.
There was a woman who hated maths at school—she never got the hang of how to logically work out the daily mental arithmetic problems and frequently got nought out of a possible score of twenty, often throwing up in the cloakroom afterwards through sheer stress. She told everyone she was hopeless at maths, and the teachers reinforced this belief right the way through her secondary, further and higher education at university.
It wasn’t until she became a teacher herself and found herself in a class acting as a numeracy support teacher that she had a ‘light bulb moment’—she realised that it wasn’t necessarily her that had been so bad at maths but more likely that the teachers hadn’t tried to explain in a way that she understood! Funnily enough, maths never became such a problem after that.
That person was me!
There is an old saying:-’If you think you can, you can; if you think you can’t, you can’t; either way you are right!
So, what are you holding back from and stopping yourself from doing or achieving? Set a goal to do one small thing that gets YOU out of YOUR comfort zone and practice daily until you find you can do more and more of what you previously thought would be impossible.
Until next time—
pavlenka