In 2017, I trained and participated in my first Sprint triathlon. Now, if you know me, you’d know that I hated cardio. Now, I’ve always loved swimming and it was easy for me, having conditioned my body from a young age being on the swim team. Most of my 30s and 40s, I did my beloved Chisel class which consisted of doing an hour of lifting weights to high energy music.
Two years ago, a friend mentioned she had signed up for a triathlon the following April. I thought, if she can do it, I can too! It took me a whole 10 minutes (or less) to decide to take the challenge and register.
January rolled around and I trained for 4 months, mostly dreading it every day. I overcame a shoulder injury and my head noise but I did it. I completed. I remember the whole thing as one BIG struggle.
So, I sit here writing and preparing for my 2nd triathlon tomorrow morning. Race day jitters are setting in and I’ve decided to take a different approach. Intentionally. By choice. So, I’m creating that I will have a really fun time, BE AND DO the best I can do (not to sound cliché’).
It’s all about mindset. You see, I’m an Energy Leadership Coach. I help people master their energy potential to become more self-aware. Time to take some of my own medicine. So, as I prepared for tomorrow, I’m setting myself up for success.
Here’s what I’m doing:
1. Meditating. I meditate daily but these will be different.
The first one will be about visualizing the course. Every part of it. From waiting in line to swim, to setting up for transitions and each transition of the swim, bike and run. Every turn. Every hill (only 2 and thank God). Every step.
2. My second meditation will be about creating an intention for my race tomorrow. A solid one. One about empowerment. One about happy. One connected to my heart. Last year, all I remember is the noise in my head about how painful it was and how alone I felt. You see, triathlon is a very lonely sport even with hundreds of people around you. It’s all about you, your ability, how you do things, how you finish, how you react to adversity. It’s really a microcosm of life itself. So, this year will be different. I will focus on my BE and only my BE. That will determine the actions that I take each step of the way and the results I will see at the end of the day. That’s all I have control over. So, my BE for the day will be FUN! If my knee hurts, shift the thought to something else! I’ve overcome way more challenges than a little knee thing.
3. My fourth meditation will be right before I go to sleep. It will be about relaxing my body so that I can get a restful sleep. Yoga Nidra is fabulous for accomplishing this when you have to go to bed really early and stop the noise in your head.
4. The final step is the magic. Our thoughts create our feelings and our feelings create how we show up and the results we get. So, between now and when I cross the finish line, every time I have a thought that leads to worry, be aware of it and when it doesn’t serve me, create a new thought. I think this step might take place about 1000 times before tomorrow morning.
So, for anyone who’s wanting to take on a new challenge, I say DO IT. Create your BE and settle into that intention. Let your intention BE the energy behind everything that you do. When we can do this, everything else falls into place.
Awareness is everything! When we can tap into our feelings, acknowledge them (not ignore), then decide if our thoughts/feelings are serving us. If they aren’t, then CHOOSE something that feels better for us. Shift our energy. Shift our vibration. Get different results!
Allison Field, CPC, MCC, ELI-MP – Career Design & Leadership Coach
I help people master their energy potential.
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