Hey there . So today I'm going to share with you a little parable from my life that might shed some light on areas that you may be having any kind of mental blocks . Come along with me and let me know what you think . If you're listening on Spotify , you can literally let me know , because there is a message capability there now . So if you're a Spotify listener , please let me know what you think of the episode .
Speaker 1So I experienced a mental block , and that mental block was literally a block . Well , let me explain . So , for the first time in my life , I've been treating myself to a personal trainer once a week , and I would imagine that working with me as a client has a potential to be intimidating , not because I'm strong and fit physically although I am working on that but because I'm strong and fit mentally . Let me explain . So . I am aware that sometimes my confidence has the capacity to make people adjust themselves accordingly or make assumptions about me , particularly when it comes to knowing my body . After all , I've been a dancer my whole life . It's my job to have control over and understand my physical self . But from the start , it was important for me to let my trainer know that , even though I might seem like I know what I'm doing I have little to no experience in the weightlifting realm and that I really wanted to be sure that my smart body wasn't making stupid choices about how I was doing things . She understood completely what I was saying and went on to share with me that for her , the assumptions went the other way and that she often had to prove to her clients that she knew what she was doing , despite her slight physique and young age . She isn't much bigger than a flea and is barely 22 years old , but she also happens to be an award-winning weightlifter . She's awesome . I appreciated her candor and I assured her that I could already tell that she knew her stuff and that she had nothing that she needed to prove to me , and so our work began together with a foundation of honesty , mutual understanding and respect . Despite how easy it might have been to assume or make judgments based on each of our appearances , from that moment on I knew we were a good fit . So , anyways , she always keeps our workouts varied and interesting . From battle ropes , never have I felt less elegant to the sled , which entails me channeling my inner quarterback .
Speaker 1Well , on this particular day , she pulled out this small black block it's about 16 inches high and she started to demonstrate the next exercise . I watched as she easily jumped up and off the block as this unfamiliar feeling came over me . It was fear . So it was my turn and I stepped in front of the block preparing to do the exercise . I stood there staring at it . I couldn't move . Come on , you got this , lisa , it's easy . I heard my trainer saying . She seemed somewhat surprised by my hesitancy , so I took a deep breath and I bent my knees preparing to jump , but something in my brain stopped me .
Speaker 1Now , as a life coach , I work a lot with fear , so it was actually super interesting for me to understand what was going on . I truly believed in my mind at that moment that I couldn't do it and was already creating vivid storylines about what might happen when I missed the box . She lowered the height and had me jump off the box , which I did , albeit reluctantly , and I could even easily leap up and land on one leg . But that wasn't the exercise . I was completely convinced there was no way I could do it with two feet . Just try it once . She kept saying I'll catch you if you fall . No amount of encouragement was working , so she downgraded me to a step , and , although I did that fairly easily , a few times that too came to a standstill and I couldn't do it .
Speaker 1I noticed , though , that I wasn't angry at myself or ashamed . In fact , that day , I found it super curious , almost funny . I knew instinctively that this moment was teaching me something about myself , although I didn't know what , and despite what you might be thinking . It wasn't about overcoming my fear . My focus transformed from conquering my fear to understanding it , so I thought it might be interesting to look at my story through my lens as a coach to see if there were any inner blocks that were holding me back that day . You might find this interesting . There are four inner blocks that can hold us back or affect our ability to move forward with the things we want to do .
Speaker 1In coaching , we use the acronym Gail , g-a-i-l , so the G stands for gremlin . Your gremlin is your inner critic , and it's the voice that tells you in one way or another , that you're not good enough . So , in my story , if the gremlin was responsible for holding me back , it might have sent me a message that said something like don't do it , you'll just embarrass yourself , or you aren't strong enough to do it or that kind of thing . But I wasn't hearing that message . So A stands for assumption , an expectation that because something has happened in the past , it's going to happen again Now . That's a little bit interesting because somewhere deep down there may actually have been a time when I hurt myself trying something similar and I believed that this might be the same thing . Although I couldn't put my finger on it , there's a chance that there that might have been at play here .
Speaker 1So the I the I stands for interpretation , an opinion or judgment that you create around an event or a situation , or a person or an experience . It's something that you believe to be true . I might have interpreted what happened as a weakness or waste of time , but for me that wasn't it either . That wasn't the case . Who knows how my trainer interpreted it , but we're looking at my inner blocks , not hers . So the L is for limiting beliefs . So limiting beliefs are something that you accept about life or about yourself or about your world or the people in it that limits you in some way . So many things could fall under this heading in my story , including limiting beliefs about age or health or strength or maybe even courage , but again , I didn't really feel any of those .
Speaker 1So what was going on that day ? You know , there's a quote . There's a quote that goes something like , and I paraphrase but everything you've ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear . To get what you want , you just need to get past your fear . In some instances , that may be true , and fear can actually sometimes be a motivator , especially if you ascribe to the idea that overcoming it will bring you everything that you want . But you know what I'm realizing .
Maybe I did have a limiting belief that day . Yeah , the limiting belief I had was that I'm supposed to overcome my fear , that when I'm faced with something that scares me , I'm somehow supposed to do it anyways . Huh , so we spent at least 15 minutes more that day trying my trainer trying her hardest to convince me to do it To no avail . The funny thing is that I thought I wanted to do it , but now , in retrospect , I realize I could care less . I'm grateful that it happened , though , and for today's lesson , the block wasn't a mental block , it was just a block . I'm Lisa Hopkins . Thanks for listening . Stay safe and healthy , everyone , and remember to live in the moment .