A few days ago I wrote about the Solar Plexus chakra.
In a gym environment, as a coach, I often witness the moments where people are breaking into a new level of strength, learning a new movement, or attempting to break some other plateau.
ALMOST ALWAYS, they are more than capable of doing the movement at that time*.
ALMOST ALWAYS, they believe that they aren’t capable of doing the movement or have hesitation.
This is where the conflict lies – while “excitation” or even a little bit of nervousness can help performance to a point, when it is doubt, or a lack in self-belief, it seems to make the learning process much harder.
What do we do?
1. Start to notice this feeling of “fear” in new situations, learn that when the signs are right, we have a green light to move through it
2. Learn to see the signs that you are ready – a trustworthy coach, mastery of the progressions
3. Be OK with failing. Of course, we reduce the risks of this where possible, but inevitably there are tons of failed attempts with a lot of new, more complex movements.
Before Roger Bannister ran the first sub 4 minute mile in 1954 (Bannister passed away earlier this year), it was believed that nobody achieve this feat. After he did it, many others also ran under 4 minutes.
The power of self belief is immense in movement and exercise.
If we can learn to harness it early enough, it helps to accelerate our growth.
*As a coach, we are trained to “see” this.
