“You can do it!” How many times have I said those words to someone who wants to run a half marathon and isn’t sure if they have what it takes. “I just don’t know if I can do it” they say, which can have a hundred different meanings. It may mean that she doesn’t know if she is strong enough physically. It may mean he doesn’t know if he has the time, or enough motivation. And I always answer the same way. “You can do it!” I don’t say those 4 words lightly. I’m not offering false hope. I know that if you’re willing to commit your time and energy and stick to a training program, you can be a finisher. The magic doesn’t happen on race day. The magic is in the training, and 13.1 miles won’t seem so difficult come race day when the majority of the hard work is already behind you. You CAN do it! I need to speak those 4 words to myself sometimes. Whether it’s starting a business, being a good parent, sticking up for myself, having that tough conversation… the list goes on. And when you break it down, there’s so much meaning in each of those words. Let’s look at that first word. YOU. We live in a world where passing the blame comes easy. If we don’t like the lot we’ve been given in life, it must be the fault of our parents, or that bad experience we had, or all the ways that life beat us down over the years. Now, I don’t want to minimize the fact that life is tough and, when it comes down to it, you may have been handed more than your fair share of struggle. The problem arises when that struggle becomes the hill we decide to take a stand on for the rest of our life. So many of us live and die by our victim status that we completely take away our own ability to move forward. If you ever want your past to truly be “in the past”, you have to be willing to leave it behind. In the words of the famous song, you have to “let it go”! And only you can do that. No one else. No system, no pill, no gimmick, no 12-step- program. No coach, counselor, family member, boyfriend or girlfriend. YOU and you alone can do it. All the things that make you up – your experiences, emotions, accomplishments and failures, beliefs, personality, strengths and weaknesses. They are enough to take you from here to there. Whatever point you are at now and wherever you want to be… YOU can do it. YOU are enough. CAN. At the end of the day, what holds us back from attempting to run a half marathon or asking for a raise or learning a new skill or making a new friend? I don’t think we’re lazy or un-ambitious. I think we’re afraid, pure and simple. And we’re not afraid of the hard work… we’re afraid of putting in the work and failing. We’re afraid of finding out that, no matter how hard we try… We. Just. Can’t. So, we don’t even try. But here’s what you need to ask yourself. If you could attempt anything in the world and know that you couldn’t fail, what would it be? If success was guaranteed, what heights would you reach? Obviously, most of you would aim higher than running a half marathon. But in the real world, where success isn’t always guaranteed and disappointment is a real part of life, some of us just need to take a first step. We need to rewire our brains to say “you CAN do it” and that often starts with success on a smaller scale… like 13.1 miles. DO IT. There is a very successful branding campaign centered around this concept. “Just do it” has made Nike millions (maybe billions) of dollars and has inspired countless athletes and Average Joe’s to quit making excuses. When we tell ourselves, “You can DO IT”, we’re assuming action. The first two words in the phrase don’t really matter if we can’t actually take action at some point. Our problem is that we think too far ahead. We’re worried about mile 10 when we should be focusing on mile 1. Some of us just need to focus on the first step! Yes, mile 10 is real. Yes, there will be obstacles along the way whether you’re training for a half marathon or facing any other challenge in life. But we can’t let the fear of those obstacles keep us from putting one foot in front of the other. Most of the time it’s good advice to think first and act later. But sometimes we need to put that advice on the shelf, especially when we’re facing our fear of failure. Because we use “thinking” as our excuse for never acting. We say we’re waiting for the perfect time or until we have all our ducks in a row or until Jupiter and mars align and hell freezes over on the same night as a full moon. You get the picture. If you wait for the perfect time, it will never come. If you wait until you are perfect, it will never happen. Just DO IT! So, the next time you’re faced with self-doubt, remind yourself that “YOU CAN DO IT”! And when you’re ready to run your first half, I’ll be here… telling you the same thing. Because I know it’s true! You’ve got this!
