Today's Thought - What Are Your Limitations?

What Do You Think Your Limitations Are?

 So as you begin to dream bigger and set big goals what does the voice say in your head?

 What do you think might be blocking you, stopping you from having everything you dream of?

 At the moment you write down that big dream, what pops up in your head? Pay attention because a lot of the time, we are so used to this negative voice in our head, we don’t even notice it.

 When working with people and when I’m working on my dreams we will often think, I have a block. 

 What is my block? Why can’t I figure it out? Why can’t I get there?

 Well over time I learned it's hiding right there in your head, you just have to pay attention.

 So the next time you're working on something or writing out your goals and desires in the morning, stop for a moment and listen.

 What is that voice saying? Some people call it the ego, and some have a name for it. Negative Nancy, Debbie Downer, Party Pooper Pete. 

 Whatever helps you start to pay attention to that voice and tame it a bit, (more about that in a sec)  Then great,  do it!

 As an example, your dream might be to start a new business at the age of 65. You just retired but you're not done, you feel you have a lot to give so your gonna do it!

 You’re excited and inspired, yay!

 Then, all of a sudden Debbie Downer comes into the room and she starts shooting her mouth off.

 DD: Come on, you're too old, you're never ran a business before, it’s too late to learn all this stuff, you don’t have that kind of energy, and let’s not even talk about how much money it would take.

 That's the voice I’m talking about, we all have it, right?

 So how do we tame it or reprogram it?

 Let me start with a story about myself and a cool way I learned this lesson.

 So as a lot of you know when I was 39 years old,  I had a stroke and it was caused by stress. What happened was,  the inside lining of the artery in my neck tore, and then blocked the blood flow off to my brain. 

 The way I had to heal and the way the doctors thought it was the safest way to heal was for me to let it heal closed. They said it was too dangerous to fix. The standard time for an artery to heal is 8 weeks. So for 8 weeks, I had to sit still and not do anything stressful. I had to sleep on my back with my head straight with a brace on. I had to wait for it to heal.

 I felt like a ticking time bomb just waiting to die. It was terrifying.  At the time I had three kids. Two of them were pretty young, and my mother was staying with me because I couldn't do anything. It was extremely, extremely stressful, now remember I wasn't supposed to experience any stress.

  After I had the stroke I was feeling very dizzy I had balance issues and I was told that this might be how I was going to be from this point forward.  That was the first thing that was unacceptable.  

 I was also told by the neurologists that were treating me, that I had to treat myself like a delicate flower and not do anything too active, too abrasive in my life.  

 That was kind of funny I am not a delicate flower and those of you who know me, know this is not true.  

 I was also told that I probably shouldn't run, maybe walking or maybe a jog but no doctor wanted to clear me for running and I was a runner.

 It was depressing, to say the least, and let me tell you I wallowed in it for a while. I just kept thinking what's going to happen to me if I just sit on my ass for the rest of my life. I'm going to get fat and unhealthy someone's going to have to take care of me. I also thought my kids were going to have to take care of me. It was a horrible thought I didn't want to live that way.

 So I decided to try to find proof that I didn't have to live this way. I started reading every article I could find on my condition. I tried to find a positive story and let me tell you something. Oh my God, there were so many bad stories, so many, and I was getting more and more depressed.It wasn't working. 

 Then finally, a glimmer of hope came. I was in my doctor's office with my neurologist for my weekly appointment and I was reading one of the neurology magazines. 

 There was an article in there about an NFL player who had the same thing happen with the artery leading to his heart.  As I was reading the article I felt really bad for him because, he was a lot younger than me, but then I read that he returned to the NFL to play again. 

 WHAT?

 That was the moment.  I stopped reading the article right at that point. I didn't want to know anything else. All I knew was he returned to the NFL and if he could return to the NFL I could run down the road again.

 So against the doctor's orders, I began very slowly, remember, I had no balance, I began to run again. I started by walking the length of a driveway and then I would run the length of the driveway.

 It took a lot of concentration not to fall over it was mentally draining.

 That's how I started. I took small steps and I kept moving forward.

I had my stroke in May,  and I ran my first 5k that December with my oldest daughter. and a huge crowd of friends.

 Since then I have run over 15 half marathons, 1 marathon, 6 Ragnar's, look it up if you don't know what it is,  a sprint triathlon,  and many more races.

 Now, the coolest part of the story is couple of years after my stroke I was running around my neighborhood I felt great. I decided to run five miles instead of three because I felt so good.  

 All of a sudden, as I turned around the corner, I got really really dizzy.  I almost fell on my face.  It felt exactly the same as when I had my stroke.  I was so scared.

I was pretty close to home so I called a friend and stayed on the phone with them until I got home.  Then I called my neurologist and of course, he told me to go to the emergency room, so I did.

 I had to go in for an angio to see what was going on.  After a few minutes or however long an angio takes, my neurologist brought me out of sedation and told me, “Tina, you're not going to believe this, your artery is healed and open and working.”

 I was in shock. I couldn't believe it. It was the best news. I then asked him, what are the chances of this happening and he told me he never saw this happen.

 So while the story might be a little extreme, it just shows you the power of belief and persistence, and how you can change your life.

 As you might imagine, ever since then, my thought process is that I can do anything, create anything, but only if I really want it, only if it's really aligned.

 So how much do you believe in your dream, and are you completely aligned with it? Why is it important to you?

 The “Why” is really important and maybe in my next blog post, I'll talk more about that.

 So pay attention to those voices, call them out, prove them wrong, find a way, and keep doing that on repeat until you reach your dream.

 Xo, T