Are you ready to walk your wall?
Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren’t there to keep us out.
The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things.”
~ Randy Pausch
I was feeling pretty smug as I sauntered into the gym with confidence before sunrise. I had been working out with a trainer for about 7 weeks when the glorious week came that I did not feel as if I had been beaten with a stick the day after training. I could sit down and stand up without my quads shaking in pain and lift my arms over my head without wincing.
I walked into the training studio and saw my trainer lining up plyo boxes of varying heights and arranging a series of pretty hefty free weights. “Morning!” he yelled out without looking up.
“What’s all that?”
“This,” he said with a smirk while waving his arm in front of the tortuous array like Vanna White, “is what I like to call New Level, New Devil.”
My confidence threw its belongings into a suitcase and headed for the door. It turned out be one of the most challenging hours of my life.
While stepping up onto the boxes with the weights was physically demanding to be sure, the greater hurdle was quieting the riotous party of lizards on meth in my brain.
“This should be easier.”
“Why is this so hard?”
“You haven’t made any progress after all. Look at you huffing and puffing and straining.”
“You suck.”
Fully expecting my challenges of meeting my “new devil,” my trainer kept bringing my attention back to focus and form. He also, mercifully, kept me laughing.
Reflecting upon the session, I realized that growth, by definition, is a series of moments where we meet ourselves at Our Wall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXsm7vKuoVo
Take a moment to consider this: What is it that you really want? More than anything else? What is THE DREAM or THE GOAL for you? The one thing that would change everything for you. Write it down and read it aloud.
Notice what happens (what comes up).
The Resistance to our dream or goal is Our Wall.
Our Wall shape shifts—changing composition and height as we conquer limited, previous versions of ourselves. And as we become our own alchemist and transmute our challenges into personal gold, we still find ourselves inches from our own faces, looking into our own eyes and wondering, “Do I have what it takes?”
(We do.)
The way over Our Wall is through. Through the unknowns. Through the maze while the mean chatter from our own minds prattles on and on. Through the dark nights of the soul as we inch forward, only to wake and see our progress not only erased, but moved backward three spaces.
Each morning is like how that morning at the gym was for me. I could handle the challenges if I were able to pull my mind out of my body and disbelieve all those limiting thoughts. If I could overcome myself, I was home free. Safely over.
Clearly identify Your Wall. THE wall for you. What is the first action to walk your wall? Nothing else matters except that first action. As you place your sneakers upon the wall and reach for the rope, take a deep breath, and look up.
See your Future Self atop Your Wall, looking down at yourself with enormous love and compassion. What would your Future Self shout to you to get you to walk, hand over hand, step by step? What do you need to believe?
We are all Seeger, bringing all our fear to Our Wall. Be Mayo for yourself.
Walk Your Wall. Step by step. Don’t let go. Pull yourself over.
Sending love from the mountaintop!
