7 Day Stamina Challenge Wrap up

Well, well. Wasn’t that an interesting, jam packed full-of-learning week.

Anyone who participated in the challenge deserves a pat on the back for stretching those comfort zones so far that we were sure that they might snap us right into next week. Or under the wheels of an oncoming bus.

I came away intrigued, in spite of some of the unease I experienced.

Consequently, I looked up Mel’s Robbins’ book, “Stop Saying You’re Fine,” which was the genesis for the challenge. In an excerpt that really grabbed my attention, the author writes about being stuck, and also about the unconscious as being a lot like a group of related, very fast processors that are

. . . excellent tools for most kinds of decision making that involve survival, but they’re not so good at some of the subtleties of higher-level thinking. As a result, we are constantly making predictably irrational errors. For example, our brains have a terrible bias for “now” over “later,” because our automatic unconscious believes that survival depends on immediate satisfaction.

And this . . .

To grow, you have to do the stuff that feels hard right now, not later. (Emphasis hers)

And this . . .

It’s a constant battle between your game-changer thoughts (lose weight, start a business, find love) that want to upset the current order of your life, and the protective thoughts (I don’t feel like it today, what if I get hurt) that want to preserve order by keeping things the same. Your mind is always scouting all the incoming signs from the outside world, and trying to make predictions about what might happen next, all in order to maintain a high level of safety and a reduced level of risk. When it sees a threat of any kind, it finds a reason to retreat. It’s the wet-blanket theory of motivation. If your mind can kill a great idea by dampening it with emotional turmoil, it will.

That says a lot about the voices in my head and being stuck for so many years. Lots.

Later, I get another revelation when I read about “fake limits”. The author notes that our brain is an “overeager natural defense system that is designed to protect you from stepping into situations that involve too much risk.” What that means to me  is that the brain tries to trick you into thinking that you just can’t go any further. It throws up the detour signs and prays you don’t just go around them.

Robbins counsels us to function with awareness:

Knowing that your brain is spoofing you, there are times when you will need to push back. If you find yourself feeling “tired” or negative-distract yourself momentarily: play music, take a walk, leave the room-then refocus on the task at hand.

I actually used this today to push through an exercise at which I was doing poorly, and-surprise, surprise-I was able to continue more successfully after I took a moment and recognized what was happening. Once I restarted, I imagined my brain cried out derisively, “Psyche!” (a disparaging term from my long, long ago juvenile days), as though she wanted to let me know she was well aware the limit had not been real, and she knew full well I could carry on. She was just spoofin’ me.

Participating in this challenge not only led me to Mel Robbins’ engaging book, which I will be reading soon, but it also left me with a some take-aways, which I share below in no particular order.

We need to live with intention, joyfully embracing the stretching of our boundaries and the sharpening of our character.

And the discomfort-and joy-that often appears as a side-effect.

And hope. We must have hope.

Hope that we will be successful more often than we are not.

We know there are scary things in things in the world, and we just need to come out from under the couch and face them, otherwise we may not be able to face ourselves.

Sometimes, though, the wiser course of action is to lie on the ground and play possum until the scary things pass us by, and then continue on our way.

Exercise is good. Just not the running-away-from-beary-wild-things kind.

Being a role-model is much easier said than done, but nonetheless one of the most important responsibilities we hold as parents.

We have so much busyness in our lives, but we must remember we are too busy not too pray. Take the time for our faith, to go to the well and refresh.

Journals are a deceptively simple vehicle, yet they will take us anywhere we want to go if we will just get in, rev our engine, and write regularly and faithfully.

Be prepared for both success and limited success, and remember that failure of an idea isn’t an indictment. It is just information we can use to get up and keep moving forward, just in a slightly different direction.

Now, go forth, and challenge away!

In case you missed any of the other installments, here they are:

Day 1—On resting and arising early

Day 2—Excavating a really big idea

Day 3—How not to rev up your morning walk

Day 4—Doing different and telling my story

Day 5—Fraidy-Catness

Day 6—Baring your soul

Day 7—Final Day of the Stamina Challenge