Matter Over Mind

"The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It's your mind you have to convince."
— Vince Lombardi

I’ve thought a lot about the words “I Can’t”. There are a lot of things I can’t do.

I can’t fly an airplane.
I can’t surf.
I can’t play the guitar.
I can’t rewire a computer.

But the thing is I CAN learn to do all of those things…if I wanted to. Honestly, I have no interest in flying an airplane or rewiring a computer (the surfing and guitar would be cool though, bucket list time!)

BUT when it comes to my body, as of today, there is NOTHING I CAN’T DO.

When I first started running, I would get tired so quickly. At the time, I couldn’t run a mile. I pushed myself and trained until I COULD do it.

I remember a particularly challenging run when I was bargaining with myself. “Heather, if you make it to that tree, you can walk for one song.” “Heather, if you make it to the light post, you can walk for a 20 count.” But my body would keep going. In my head I wanted to stop. My body and more importantly, MY HEART…wasn’t hearing it.

In fact, at one point I was walking and I didn’t even know I had stopped running. My body KNEW when I couldn’t go anymore and slowed down, but my mind was still running.

It’s difficult to match your body and your mind. The mind is a tricky and slow thing. My mind doesn’t always seem to know what’s going on with me.

It tells me to stop when I can still go.
It thinks I can’t fit into clothes at some stores when, in fact, I probably can.
It doesn’t recognize the person in the mirror at a glance and does a double take.
It says I can’t.

If you were doing something and someone you knew or even some stranger looked at you and said you can’t, would you listen? Or would it make you want to try even harder? Would you sit back and listen to the naysayers or would you get stubborn and do whatever it takes to prove them wrong?

For many of us, someone else telling us we can’t just makes us more determined to prove that we can. Why do we insist on proving others wrong but we still let the voices in our head deter us from our goals and dreams?

I WANT TO PROVE MYSELF WRONG!

It’s time to tell our minds to SHUT IT!
It’s time to listen to our bodies. It’s time to listen to our hearts.

I CAN! Can you?