Firefighters say that when your mind tells your body to quit, you’re only at 40% of your capacity, and your mission is to find that 60% you have left to accomplish your goal! One training tactic is to lead firefighters through exhausting exercises before having them go through specially designed houses filled with smoke and fire.
The goal is to teach them how to perform at their best level while being tired. When pursuing challenging goals, you will experience mental strain, and sometimes, physical stress. Yet, you can go so much farther than you think, especially when your mind starts suggesting that you can’t.
I’ve been doing pushups since covid first started. At first, I’d you thirty pushups and was straining by number 20. After a while, I got up to 50 pushups in a row and noticed my mind wanted to stop after 40. Every couple of weeks, I’d increase the count by 10. While writing this article, I had the idea of seeing whether I could crank out 100 pushups in a row. WOW! I just did it. I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before, and certainly not at 51 years old.
Then I saw some 20-year-olds talking about how they did 200 pushups for a month by doing four sets of 50 pushups throughout the day. I had never thought of that before, so I did the same thing. So I started at 20 pushups, and now I’m at 200, which is a 900% increase. The only reason this became possible is that I told myself it was!
How much time do you spend telling yourself you either CAN or CAN’T do something? I believe anything is possible. How about you? Thousands of people have come to coaching sessions complaining that some behavior or goal was IMPOSSIBLE for them to accomplish. Whether it was improving their health, letting go of fear or addiction, doubling their income, or finding new love.
Yet, through the One Belief Away interventions, those same people attained their goals! It shifted from “IMPOSSIBLE” to “I’M POSSIBLE!” I had a friend (and client) call me up the other day because he had just smashed another personal sales record. What he had sold in a year, he just sold in a month! We were joyfully celebrating and in awe of what’s possible when you stop focusing on what isn’t.
It’s a powerful idea to realize that when you feel like you’re unable to go any farther, you still have 60% more ability and fuel left in the tank! Many firefighters have one advantage: they usually have a department giving them moral support and encouragement. If you do not have this, reach out to me, and I’ll provide it for you. You can also be a support system for others, as we often receive back what we put out into the world.
Just remember, you have the ability and power to achieve your most important goals. The rest is a mindset, and the more you develop that, the more effective you will be at attaining whatever your heart desires. Thus, this week, commit to raising the bar and your standards. Engage in activities that strengthen your mindset, and keep telling yourself that you’ve got SO MUCH MORE in the tank. You got it! Let’s go…
