Getting to Day 2

Almost a year ago, I tried an intermediate yoga class. I watched as the instructor twisted herself into some ridiculous shape. As I made an attempt and failed, I complained to my husband that it was too hard and I could never do it. As I laid there on the ground, defeated, he said something that stuck with me: well, it wouldn't be as impressive if the instructor was only as good as you, would it? I laughed and realized he was right. I was on day 1, comparing myself to someone that was good enough to teach it. This is something that so many of us do every day and it keeps us from getting to day 2.

This past week, I was in Utah with the company I work at, and in one of our sessions we heard the story of the Iron Cowboy. If you go to his site you can read up about all the endurance challenges he has done, one of which was running 100 triathlons in 100 days. The day we were learning about him was also day 100 of that challenge, and he was running the last leg about 20 minutes from where we were gathered. As they wrapped up the session, we all piled into different cars and drove over so we could see him run by and cheer him on.

His story is one that should inspire people to conquer more, to push themselves and see what else they are capable of. What is interesting though, is that I noticed many of my colleagues did not have that reaction. Instead, they responded in the same way I did when I felt defeated on my yoga mat. They just put him into a different category, along with all the other inspiring stories we heard this week, and then they went back to their life not impacted at all. Why do we do that?

Instead of letting the success of someone else inspire us, we let it frustrate us.

Don't let that happen to you. You may have no interest in running 100 triathlons in 100 days, and that's perfectly fine. But don't just assume you can't. If you see someone doing something that you wish you could do, don't give up on that life before you've even tried to go after it. Depending on where you are starting the road might be a long one, but it's still there. You just need to find it, and stick with it.

Think of someone you wish you could be like. Maybe it's someone really in shape and determined, like the Iron Cowboy. Maybe it's someone who is very generous, or has an extraordinary kindness that you wish you had. Now take a minute to entertain the idea of what the path would look like to get to where they are. Right now, they are at the end. But what does the start look like? Instead of getting frustrated that you aren't there with them already, let their ending, inspire your beginning.