I can’t do that! I’m too short to be good! I’m just not fast enough! I’ll never be able to do that! Besides, I have exercise-induced asthma. The greatest limitations that you have are not physical, they are MENTAL!
As an athlete and person, YOU are always limited most by what YOU BELIEVE is possible!
Performance on and off the playing field is what I call “self-fulfilling.” That is, you always get what you expect. If you don’t think that you can do something, then your efforts towards that goal will be less determined, less persistent and therefore much weaker. With failures and set backs, you’ll tend to give up more easily, feeding yourself this line of bull, “See, I knew I couldn’t do it all along!” In this case, you end up using your failure as concrete evidence to support your self-limiting belief.
However, if you believe that the sky is the limit, that you can accomplish anything that you set your mind to, then when you run into setbacks, failure and frustration, you’ll continue to work hard, to persist and persevere until you successfully accomplish that task. Then, you’ll reinforce your positive belief with, “See, I knew I could do it all along!”
We all have handicaps of one form or another. We all have limitations. Whether you use your handicaps as an excuse for failing or not going for it is totally and completely up to YOU! However, if you choose to use your limitations to hold you back then know this: YOU’RE LYING TO YOURSELF.
The annals of sports are filled with stories of athletes who have overcome debilitating handicaps to do the impossible: Eric Weinhenmayer, the first and only blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Jim Dreyer, a world record setting open water swimmer who has successfully crossed all of the Great Lakes had a life-long debilitating fear of the water which kept him from learning to swim until he was 33! Olympic Gold Medalist Amy Van Dyken had such bad asthma that in high school, her first swimming goal was to swim one entire length of the pool, 25 yards, without having to stop!
Our greatest and most debilitating handicaps are the ones that we impose upon ourselves, our “can’ts,” “nevers” and “impossibles.” Remember, you are always limited most by what you believe is possible. Watch the following video for yet another athlete, college football star, Martel Van Zant who refused to allow his handicap to determine what he could or couldn’t do! Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH54FGeIQEA
