Who do you want to be?

Posted by Fiona Harrold | No Comment

It’s the perfect time of the year to think about change: new growth, new beginnings and fresh starts. Whether it’s the Christian celebration of resurrection or the new season’s crop of daffodils that moves you, April is the month we often think about new possibilities.

So, our theme this week is, ‘Who do you want to be?‘

If you’re a regular visitor to my site you’ll know that I am always urging you to be the greatest expression of you that you could possibly be and challenge limitation when you come up against it. The greatest limitation that you face is of your own making. It’s a mindset thing.

Who you are now is a product of your imagination. You are an invention of your own making. Therefore, your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have.

You will become whoever you want to be. As the great American writer Wayne Dyer says, “You become what you think about all day long.” Henry Ford was saying something similar when he said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re usually right“. In other words, have a no-limits policy when it comes to your vision of yourself and insist on making your vision of where you want to be a reality.

Impossible is only an opinion.

50 years ago, in the spring of 1954, Roger Bannister did the ‘impossible’ when he achieved one of the most notable sporting feats of all time, becoming the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. Opinion at the time doubted whether mere mortals were up to the task. Scientists and doctors said that the human heart would burst under the stress of such an effort.

Roger succeeded because he believed that it was possible. Interestingly, within seven months of Roger’s achievement, 37 other runners matched Roger’s time and over the next three years 300 more did it. Roger had made the ‘impossible’ possible for others as well.

There are those who might think running a marathon in your 90′s is impossible.

Well, what about Fauja Singh, born in 1911, who in 2004 was emblazoned across billboards around the world in Nike ads. Fauja only took up running at the age of 82 after to moved to Ilford in Essex from India to live with his son.

In 2000, at the age of 89, he completed his first London marathon in 6hrs 54 mins. His marathon record, for age 90-plus, is 5 hours 40 minutes – a time many people decades younger than him would be entirely happy with.

Maybe this isn’t so incredible after all. Maybe we just think it is? Maybe we need to rethink our thinking on what’s possible/impossible/likely/unlikely/normal/abnormal?

One thing’s for sure. If something doesn’t exist on our mental horizon, in our field of possibilities, it’s unlikely to happen. So, get to work on expanding your mind, about you. Firstly, you need to aim beyond what you think you are capable of. Develop the habit of biting off more than you think you can chew. Make your vision of where you want to be a reality.

Nothing is impossible.

Why not give some thought to you over the next week? If nothing was impossible what would you do? Just think about it. I like what the philosopher Oliver Wendell Holmes said:
“Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.”

It’s all in the mind. Go stretch!