Your Story

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford.

I’ve seen that quote so often when I’ve been aimlessly scrolling social media, but for some reason I’d never really thought too much about it, which is quite strange when you consider how much I love a good quote. That changed today, though, just after 6am while I was sweaty and tired, and watching the sun rise.

It was after I’d finished exercising this morning that I realised how relevant it is. Let me set the scene for you…the app I use for training for this half marathon sets me a plan every week, and today’s session was to be 8 x 400m sets, running at reasonably high speed. I really don’t like these sessions – you think you’re not running that far, and it sounds quite easy, but the burning lungs and heavy legs during the workout tell a different story. Apparently, this type of exercise is meant to be great for marathon training, and because my app knows more than I do about running, I do what it tells me to. Except that this morning I rebelled a little. I only did six of the eight sets. Would you like to guess why I quit at six sets? Yeah, because I didn’t think I could do the eight. Or at least that’s the story I told myself. But when I was walking down the hill heading home, I realised how quickly I was recovering and I knew deep down that of course I had it in me to run the other two sets. (Spoiler alert: I still didn’t run the other two sets as my key was already in the door, and I certainly thought I could do with sitting on the living room floor stretching).

I had told myself some rubbish story about why I wasn’t capable of running that last 800m, even though I was, and I believed it.

So of course, my little realisation this morning got me to thinking about that quote, and really understanding how true it is. Here’s a success story for you:

For the first 24 years of my life, I “wasn’t a runner”. It simply wasn’t for me, and it wasn’t something I could ever achieve. Very occasionally I’d try it out again, just to double check, and each time I’d confirm to myself that nope, I still wasn’t a runner. But then something incredible happened during the 25th year of my life. In a moment of madness, I chose to ignore that narrative and accept a challenge to run a half marathon. With an app to point me in the right direction, and my competitive spirit tapped into, I tried to prove to myself that that story was just a great big fat lie, and if I put my mind to running I could do it.

Do you want to know what happened? I wrote a new, improved story, with a much better title. “I Am A Runner”. I drag myself out of bed five mornings a week to run. I’ve done 50 training sessions according to my trusty app, and so far I can say that I can run for an entire hour without stopping. It’s not always easy, and I don’t always want to do it (as you’ll have read above), but the point is I CAN.

To me, this is proof that you can change your story, no matter how old it is or how often you read it to yourself. Sure, it helps to have a good environment to allow your story to flourish, but it all starts with thinking you can.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret – when you realise that you can, it’s a bloody great feeling.

What’s your story?

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

That’s all for now,

Jordyn x