My husband and I recently joined a gym after the joint decision that doing online yoga classes about once every three weeks wasn’t cutting it.
It’s one of those gyms where there’s a lot of grunting.
Every class starts by building strength with barbell exercises, including the “clean and jerk” where you lift the barbell to your shoulders and then jerk it overhead.
I’ve never been sporty, I’m the least competitive person on the planet, and the heaviest dumbbells in my house are 2 lbs each.
So while everyone around me was adding insane amounts of weight to their bars, I was just lifting…the bar itself.
I figured I’d work up to adding weight slowly…very, very slowly
But this week the coach challenged me to add big plates to each side of my bar.
And I looked at him like he was crazy.
There was no way I was going to be able to lift that off the ground, let alone over my head.
And to prove it, I slid on the plates and tried.
I surprised myself by getting it up to my shoulders, but shook my head at the coach… The “jerk” part of the move was not gonna happen.
And I thought he would believe me!
But he just smiled and said he knew I could do it
Not that he thought I could…
That he knew. And he said it with all the confidence in the world.
And there was something about his conviction that stopped me from dropping the bar.
Instead, I summoned the biggest grunt I could…
And I frickin’ did it! And then, I did it again.
And this time it was almost easy.
If left to my own devices and my own ceiling of self-belief, I would never even have touched those weighted plates.
I would have kept believing that they were for all the muscle-y, hardcore, experienced people around me.
But my coach saw potential in me that I couldn’t see in myself.
He wasn’t going to let me get away with not going for it.
And that made the difference between me staying comfortable in the status quo and me building both strength and confidence.
What’s the empty barbell in your life right now?
What is the thing that you think, there’s no way you can do it?
Whatever it is, I’m here to challenge you.
I know you can do more than you think you can.
Sending Visionary Vibes your way,
Lois
