Australian Triathlete – July-August 2017

54 | AustrAliAn triAthlete

chANGe

YoUr

ThoUGhTS

H

ow many of you get paralysed

with fear in certain situations?

Whether it be in life, or on the

start line of your biggest race

of the year? All of us have experienced

fear and fear comes in many forms.

If we look at the fear experienced on

the start line of your major race, we can

associate that fear to not wanting to fail

• if we fail, we will disappoint ourselves,
  the people we love and everyone around
  us. If we disappoint these people, we fear
  losing their love or respect. Yes, it goes
  that deep.
  People have the power to choose what
  they think, believe and feel. In an instant,
  we can change the meaning of something,
  to positively influence our experience.
  For instance, at that moment when you
  feel paralysed with fear, you have a choice.
  Let that fear hold you back from giving
  everything you have towards being the
  best that you can be on that day - protect
  yourself. If you don’t fully put yourself out
  there, you won’t put yourself in danger of
  failing. If you don’t take big risks, you can
  feel safe, and comfortable. The problem is
  that the consequences of shrinking
  yourself to avoid failure are far worse, than

the consequences of taking a leap of faith,

going all-in and risking failure.

Why? Because if you don’t lay it all out

there, how will you ever know what you

are truly capable of? How will you grow?

It is by going all in, by taking risks, and

tempting failure, that we grow. When we

fail, we learn, this is when we grow. It is

through problems or disappointment that

we become connected to our greatest

desires, and what needs to be done to get

from where we are to where we want to be.

If you sit back, and don’t risk at all, and

let your fear hold you back from fully

expressing your passion, the consequences

are far more severe - feelings of

inadequacy, stagnation, or weakness.

Disappointment in yourself for not having

the courage to step into the unknown and

see what you can do!

By letting your fear “bench you”, you

will never know just how far or how fast

you can go, or how tough you can be. You

will sit safely in the bud and will never truly

be able to realise your potential.

The moment we change the meaning of

something, we create a lifelong transform-

ation in our experiences. Meaning leads to

emotion - emotion leads to action.

By changing the way we look upon how

we feel at the start line, we can change our

entire experience on race day. For instance,

what if we took that feeling of fear and

decided that it is just excitement -

excitement for the opportunity to get out

and do what we love. Push ourselves to be

the best that we can be on the day.

We typically feel fear because we care.

We care about living up to our potential.

We care about making all our efforts pay

off. We care what other people think

about us, and we care about people loving

and respecting us. But fear won’t do us

any good - it is a disempowering emotion.

Let’s replace this fear with gratitude.

When we feel gratitude, it is impossible

to feel fear, anger, helplessness or

hatefulness at the same time. Gratitude is

by far the most empowering emotion that

carries with it a meaning that can truly

bring you to performing at the best of your

ability. When I think of gratitude in this

situation, I look at it this way:

MUSINGS

S i r i

u S

Change your Life

“Always

remember,

your focus

determines

your

reality.”

George lucas