Perceived Barriers

Barriers

Have you ever believed that something was impossible, only to go and do that impossible thing and realise that it was just a perceived barrier?

There are many notable examples in sporting endeavours. How about Roger Bannister breaking the four minute mile? People genuinely believed that it was impossible. Some thought that people would implode if they tried. Once Roger achieved it the floodgates opened and many followed in his footsteps.

Fast forward to this month and Eliud Kipchoge going under 2 hours for a marathon. OK, so he had a lot of tech support and pace runners etc, but he physically ran it. I wonder if others will now follow in his rather fast footsteps?

It’s funny, isn’t it, how you can normalise something once you have done it. If I think through my swimming journey, my first 5k swimathon was a massive thing, that I didn’t know if I could complete. Not long after that I would do multiple in a single week and swim the distance completely non-stop. The prospect of my first channel relay was seriously daunting, I even tried to fail the medical, and now I have completed 13 relay crossings. I wouldn’t say that I’ve normalised a channel solo yet, but there is no longer the fear of the unknown.

What things have you achieved that once seemed only an unlikely dream?

Fenced in by your own perceived barriers?

If you think about horses, they are often kept in their fields by fences, often electric fences. These fences have a few tiny strands of wire, and through that wire goes a current of electricity. Not the kind of electricity that is dangerous, just the kind to give you a jolt. Like static electricity you get from walking on rugs. A sudden, sharp spark.

These wires stretch all around the field and as the horses walk from place to place they quickly learn where they can go and where they don't want to venture. All it takes is a few brushes against the wire. A few sudden startling zaps and being very smart animals they learn to look, but not touch. They learn so well, in fact that after a while the farmer can turn off the electricity or even replace the wires with string and those horses will stay put, fenced in by nothing at all. Stopped in their tracks by a thought, by the feeling that some places are off limits. That where they are is safe, as long as they just stay put. Satisfied to be where they are. An invisible barrier or boundary created by the mind. But once one horse goes through it then they all will follow behind. That barrier shattered and broken with no restraints on where they go next.

We don't know how a horse knows where to go, but we do know that once they know where they're going it is difficult to stop them or rein them in. Because once a tired, hungry horse sees that stable or barn at the bottom of a hill all you have to do is give it a free reign and it will take you there as quickly and surely as it can. Because it wants to be comfortable and it wants to be fed and once it knows where to go to get what it wants even an imaginary boundary can be leaped over on the way to that goal

What fun to hold on tight and just let it run, trusting that it will take you there

Swiftly and surely.

If you need help getting rid of the barriers you have put in place, get in touch now.