If you’ve read my writing for any amount of time, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of living into our fullest potential. I believe in showing up and evolving to be the very best us we can be. Maybe its the optimist in me and the cheerleader but for that reason I love watching shows like Extreme Weight Loss. The physical transformations blow my mind! I suppose because it’s something we can “see”. If we make changes to how we function emotionally or how we process things, they aren’t so evident but transformation happens none the less. Then it occurred to me, in order for a physical transformation to happen, you must have a mental shift first. You have to agree with yourself that you are willing to make the changes necessary to see your goal realized.
When someone wants a physical transformation to occur, they have to make certain changes. You have to set goals. You have to adjust your schedule to make room for these disciplines. It must be measured. It’s re-wiring your mind so that you can adjust your thinking for this journey. It’s the prep that goes into it. It’s telling those around you, you’ll be working through making some changes and ask for their patience and support. Finally and most important, it’s making the decision that there is no turning back, you’re burning your ship to make it happen. It’s go time and that’s all there is to it.
So, last night I watched Extreme Weight Loss. This beautiful brave woman started out at 320 pounds. She was having health problems, emotional problems and just the day to day struggles of carrying around this extra weight. It’s a 4 phase year program that she went through and I really appreciated it because only the 1st phase is done with the trainer. After that the person has to learn to make it theirs. She had to be able to go home and still have her “normal” life. She had to learn how to integrate her new regimen into her typical day. She had to learn to balance who she was with who she wanted to be. She would meet with the trainers at the end of each phase to weigh in. She failed to make her goals for the 2nd and 3rd phase. She was going through some emotional struggles and her old habits sucked her in. The end of her 3rd phase though she competed in a half iron man triathlon. This was a woman who hadn’t been on a bike since she was 12 years old! She began training for a 1.5 mile swim, half marathon run and a 56 mile bike ride. In the half iron man, if you’re not within the time parameters for the events, they pull you. This is not a finish when you finish event. She did it! She completed it just shy of the 8 hours allotted for the event! I was so proud of this woman I’ve never met before! Not only that but her phase 4 weigh in she met her goal and for the first time in her adult life of thirty something she was under 200 pounds. She had lost nearly 150 pounds in a year’s time.
The most striking thing that touched my heart as I watched this show was her trainer telling her during the Half Iron Man, “most people live up to only 50 percent of their potential”. Wow. Does that mean we’re only half living? That really blew my mind and disturbed me deeply all at the same time. It reminded me of a quote I read once by William James, “Most people live in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul’s resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole organism should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.” So, I wonder what is the equivalent for a mental “Iron Man” that we must train ourselves for? What I’ve realized is we can become very comfortable, myself included, in doing things the same way over and over. We can make changes but revert back to what we know, like cheating on a diet. We cheat on our discipline for a new outlook or an improved thought process. If we could somehow measure our new found habits for being better organized or maybe learning to relate to others well, or wanting to get in better physical shape--what would that look like? What daily exercises would you have to take part in to create a new habit?
I do not want to live as though I can only use my little finger, I want to use my whole being. Everyone in my life from my work family to my family at home, to my peers and all the others I come in to contact with deserve my "very best me" operating to the fullest of my potential. Aren’t you the least bit curious to see what that looks like? If you would’ve told this contestant on Extreme Weight Loss the year before she’d be participating in an Half Iron Man Triathlon, she wouldn’t have believed you, but she did it. So what is it for you that seems so utterly ridiculous? What will you set your mind to doing and burn your ship to make it happen? What does your more than 50% look like?
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