Gravity Hill and the Pull of Life.
I’m standing at the bottom of the hill on a sunny July morning, determined to show up like the runner I say I am. Instead I find myself faced with the usual demons and the assumptions that gravity would prefer I stay comfortably at the bottom. The path of least resistance.
Gravity hill and the pull of life.
Not another hill. Please. It's too hot. It's too long. I am too thirsty. I don't know if I have the energy to make it to the top. And then finally...maybe I can just use the hill as a walk break. Maybe.
Or maybe, just maybe, all the stories I have come to believe as 'true' are based on historical emotions I have come to believe about myself. Things that have occurred in my past, reminders of days when I didn’t have the strength to do things as well as I wanted to. Reminders that some days I fear the outcome so greatly, I am afraid of even starting. Stories that have played on repeat for so long that they play in time to the beat of my heart. Some days fast, and some days slower.
Yet, mostly, they have very little to do with what is true.
The truth is that our body is capable of much more than we want to believe. Yet we believe what our mind tells us and then become limited in that belief. Self-imposed limitations that then set the stage for who we are, what we can do and how we will show up next time.
That's right, based on something in the past, something that didn’t go exactly as planned, we become limited in our thinking, design our own restrictions, and then declare this to be the starting place.
Have you ever, and I mean, ever, said ‘no, I definitely can’t do that’ and then unbeknownst to yourself, actually did that thing?! Swim across the lake. Write that book. Get your first client. Get your 100th client. Complete that research project. Fix that thing that has been broken for-ever!?
Yes?! Then you know it’s possible. The question is how do we repeat it? How do we get past the point of saying, no, I can’t, to maybe I can, to I did it!
Think back to the last time that occurred. What changed the trajectory? What made you even try again after declaring you couldn’t do it?
Was it something someone said? Or did you just talk yourself into it? Did you see someone else try it and then felt less afraid to try as well? What was it?
We have to know those answers in order to successfully manage the everyday push and pull of life. We need to do more than notice the things that chronically stop us, we need to become acutely aware of the things that help us restart when we get stuck.
That is the point of success. That is where you will be most successful in resisting the pull of gravity. No matter what is pulling you down, or keeping you still.
I see this theory tested every week with clients, family and friends. I also test it out myself repeatedly.
On this particular day, I tested it out with this hill that clearly felt out of reach for me. Instead of buying into my temporary truth, I inhaled deeply to do an internal scan: Heart rate steady, check! Legs warm, check! Head in the game, check!
With one final exhale, I knew to put my focus on the doing part. Keep my eyes 10 steps in front, my stride small and steady, take it one step at a time, and get up the hill. Simple.
The top of the hill was not the focus for the moment, only each step that would get me there. Before I knew it, my heart was pounding and I was at the top of the hill...feeling accomplished that I had conquered it and it had not conquered me!
How often are you presented with challenges in your life that defeat you before you even begin the climb? Maybe you are so focused on the view at the top, that you are unable to focus on the steps it will take to get there. Life is all about your perspective. And maybe today, let’s see if you can get up that next hill.