My son is six feet four inches tall.
It was difficult to sound impressive when I drew myself up to my full five foot six and a bit inches, looked him squarely in the chest and told him he was stark raving mad.
Simon is a fitness expert and some months earlier he sat me down to have a conversation. Dad, he said, you are of an age. I am worried about you. We need to start thinking about losing weight and getting fit. Gee thanks Simon, that makes me feel really good.
But so we started on a lifestyle change that saw me go from a couch potato to jogging, boxing and lifting weights. My jogging turned into running and so there we were that fateful day one and a half miles from our home in Gloucester at the foot of Portway Hill in Upton St Leonards.
Portway is a monster. It is one mile long and a 1:12 incline. That means for every 12feet it rises one foot. It was around April and Simon had just said to me that before the end of the summer he was going to get me to the top of the hill. I told him I was in my late fifties and he was bonkers. But he was adamant.
Don’t worry dad, he told me. We will do it slowly and incrementally. Every week we will just run a little further. We will use trees, gateposts, lampposts and shrubs as our markers. And the adventure began and that’s what we did. It was a few months later that we reached a particular marker and Simon got me to stop briefly and turn around.
Just look how far we have come.
We were half-way up.
I looked back at the long steep country lane lined with trees. Their branches met overhead and formed a cathedral like vault down the hill. I couldn’t believe I had done that. Just don’t look up yet Simon advised. The second half of the hill was an even tougher challenge. But we tackled it in exactly the same way. A few metres extra every run.
A few further months down the line and we reached the top. I was ecstatic. I couldn’t believe I had done it. Objective reached. Nope he told me. Now we carry on. That’s what we did.
A few miles down the road was another hill almost as big as Portway and he got me up that. And then we carried on. We ended up doing a 12-mile circuit.I never believed it would be possible. The equivalent of a half marathon with those two massive hill climbs.
As a life coach I set my clients challenging objectives. And then they take baby steps towards achieving them. I tell them all the story of Portway Hill. We are all great story tellers.
We make up all sorts of fabulous tales about why we can’t do things. And we stay in our safety zone because that’s somewhere we know. Even if we are not happy it is at least a pain we understand.
Fear of the unknown is even more powerful and our imagination is more powerful again. So we write these scripts in our heads about likely outcomes and persuade ourselves that doing nothing is probably the best option.
Let me ask you, what is the dream that you have given up on? What have you always wanted to do but have been afraid to try?
I want to persuade yous to think about this and to set yourself a tough challenge and then plan the baby steps that will set you on the path to achieve it.
There is never a right time to do these things. The conditions will never ever be perfect. But if you don’t do it – then a year from now you will be sorry that you didn’t start today.
And remember – the only reason for looking back is to see just how far you have come.
You can contact me at: novuslc@aol.com
