A Challenge

Howdy! Two years ago I rode my bike in the Solstice Parade here in Seattle.  It is a super groovy time where tons of folks get naked and paint themselves awesome costumes and bike, skate, walk, march, and dance.  I had never thought of myself as someone who would bike naked, ever.  Yet I did it.  It was freeing and now I am someone who bikes naked!!!  Kind of cool I think.  This year I will be missing it, sadly.  However, I will be racing in the Spartan Sprint Race.  It is around 4 miles with 15 obstacles that include barbed wire, fire, and people holding huge ass Q-Tip type monstrosities attempting to knock participants down.  Yep, I chose to do this… with one of my clients.  Basically I will be battered and bruised tomorrow afternoon.  Though the course is only 4 miles it is expected to take 1-2 hours to finish.  Woohoo!

Personally, I really enjoy doing something that is hard, that pushes me to a place I don't get to visit often.  I like not knowing what to expect and I completely enjoy the fact that I will have to take it as it comes.  We can learn a lot from entering random races like this, from having to go with the flow.  So often we, as adults, refuse to try things that we aren't good at.  We tell ourselves and others a story about how we "just aren't good at this"  or we "aren't like that."  The truth is we can do what we want to.  There are no limits, yet limits are all we see.

What can you do to challenge your sense of "self" in the next two days?  How can you find a challenge that will get you out of telling the story that you have "never been good at (insert something here) to telling a new story of, I am learning how to do (insert previously denied skill)?  How can you change the story you have been telling yourself and those around you about your abilities, talents, and skills so that your story actually matches where you want to be?  Mine will be running the Spartan Race and then finding time to organize my office and making fantastic mixes for teaching on Sunday!

Have fun writing a new story around the one that has held you back.

xo

a