We are so much more capable than what we permit ourselves. In my twenties, I ran two consecutive 1-mile runs, with maybe a 30-second break in-between, in under 4-minutes. My trainer said something was wrong after I ran the first one, thinking he did something wrong with the stopwatch and told me to run it again. I balked, saying I just ran a mile at my fastest and was winded, but he told me to "do it again", so I ran that a mile again. Afterward and with an incredulous look on his face, that's when he let me know I ran the mile in under 4 minutes...twice.
I didn't believe I was physically capable of that. Three years earlier when I started running, I could not run 30-conconds at any speed, it seemed. I had been a heavy smoker and had not eaten right for about a year. I was frail and sickly. My trainer kept pushing me and I keep pushing myself. I would stop and cough blood, but then would start running again. In time my lungs and legs improved. I quit saying NO and kept pushing myself to excellence. When running track, others in training would call me names as I lapped them. I remember two athletes talking as I lapped them, one saying I would run out of steam and they would still be running. I continued lapping them until they quit.
When we had a heat wave that had everyone inside, the National Guard was called to bring the populace fans, I was outside running track. That day, I admit drinking a lot of water and jogging in a very slow, controlled pace, but I was out there. I didn't believe it was too hot, so it wasn't. That's the way it works.
But I know how I am. Looking back, had my trainer told me I did the first mile under 4-minutes, I would have run slower the second time. I also did other things I had no idea my body was capable of.
What I am saying has little to do with "me". This is not an exercise in narcissism. I believe we all underachieve, telling ourselves stories that reduce us to a "believable" level. Ironically, when we walk tall, some people will want to cut our head off to make us the same height as everyone else, because THEY don't believe they can do it.
But they (we) CAN do it, whatever it is, beyond our limiting or learned beliefs. It might require serious training and patience, wading through the pains of perception, but just count your blessing and power through it with a smile.
A woman wrote a book titled, "While Others Slept". She was a single mom holding a full-time job and going to school full time. She earned a degree and proved it could be done...while others slept