Hi!
Yeah, that’s me….like 4 years ago when I had just one kid under my belt! I still can’t believe I was actually smiling while exerting that much effort to haul myself up to the pullup bar….
I use this photo as a personal demonstration that FAILURE is a made up word. I think it was made up by the diet and
personal growth community to sell books, seminars, weight loss programs and so on.
Stay with me here………..
I can’t even remember how many times I attempted to do just 1 pull up before I finally grabbed hold of the handles and lifted my chin above the bar………..I “FAILED” more times than I care to remember. I tried and tried and tried but couldn’t get my body to move even an inch.
The interesting thing is that I recall talking with a good friend on a day when I was down and out and ready to give up. I had been trying for over 3 months and till couldn’t do it.
I remember him saying “who cares Jenn how long it takes you to get there so long as you get there!”.
It was in that moment that I banished the word FAILURE from my life forever. And it was also the turning point
to work out to get stronger knowing one day I would be able to do 1 pullup. Within the next month
after I let go of all the pressure to perform that I completed my first ever pullup.
It was a life defining moment for me.
You see in the past I had the word FAILURE defined as me being a sort of weak, dumb, bad, loser-ish kinda person if I attempted to do something and wasn’t successful on my first try.
So at some point in my life I stopped taking risks and living my potential. Instead I hid behind my fear of failure and what it meant to me because that felt safer than trying and not succeeding.
Doesn’t that just SOUND NUTS?
If it doesn’t, it should!
For those who have kids, imagine if you expected your kid to get it RIGHT the first time they tried something otherwise they would be considered a FAILURE. What if they tried it 5x, 10x, 100x and still didn’t quite get it right?
Would you call them a failure then?
I think NOT! In fact I can’t get over how encouraging parents are with their kids and deep down they are ripping themselves a new one for not being better, stronger, smarter, richer.
Why treat our kids one way and ourselves another way???
Let this serve as your reminder today that to FAIL simply means that you just haven’t figured it out yet.
Given the proper amount of time, training, support, knowledge and determination you can accomplish anything.
Promise.
Once I did my first pullup, it was within a matter of a month that I was doing 10. I just needed to get over the hump
and get over myself!!!!!
