Definitely NOT a picture of me...
Have you ever told yourself you can’t do something?
I tell myself this ALL the time.
I’m not a morning person.
I procrastinate too much.
I’m not confident enough.
I’m addicted to chocolate.
And on and on.
We all do it, but here's the thing: do you ever stop and reconsider the stories you tell yourself?
Maybe they used to be true, sure, but are they still true now? Have you tried recently to prove that particular story wrong? To prove YOURSELF wrong?
Another story I have is that I can’t hula hoop. I’ve never been able to do it. Not for longer than two seconds, anyway.
How on Earth do you get an insanely giant hoop to stay up, going round and round, somehow resting magically on your hips, without it falling?! It’s utter madness!
So when my personal trainer got out the hula hoop at the gym the other day and told me to go for as long as I could, I laughed and said, ‘Sorry, not gonna happen.’
But I tried. And I failed. Of course - because I can’t hula hoop! I’ve known this for years. I just don’t have the knack. It's simply not something I can do.
Fortunately, my trainer insisted that I kept going, and after 10 failed attempts and 10 embarrassing moments of the hoop clattering to the floor, a miracle happened: it stayed up! I was hula hooping!
...And it wouldn’t stop!
I actually had to grab the hoop and stop it from continuing on its merry loop because my training session was coming to an end and my trainer didn’t have time to stand there, watching, as I laughed giddily at the fact I was hula hooping.
Now, I have a new story to tell myself: that I CAN hula hoop.
Don’t believe the stories you tell yourself - challenge them as often as you can, even if it’s a story about not being able to hula hoop.
So, what stories do you tell yourself on a regular basis? Let me know in the comments!
You can also find out more about how to slay your limiting beliefs and tell yourself new, better stories in my book, Write Your Life: The Ultimate Life Hack For Achieving Your Dreams, out now!