Fear of Falling, or is That Failing?

When I started running again after my hamstring injury I would have these moments where I would think “I’m going to fall.” There was no reason that I would fall and nothing had happened, I would just start to feel anxious, my heart rate would go up and I would want to stop.

I did not fall. I did not stop.

Often it is these normal self-protective thoughts that keep us from trying. What if we fall, or worse fail?

Trust me, failing is not the worst thing. If I had stopped running, or never tried to run again due to the fear of falling, that would be much worse.

Failing is never trying regardless of the outcome.

Choosing your path

At the beginning of every year, I like to set some goals that require consistent effort. I started this a few years ago when I realized that I had gone an entire year and hardly read any books. I am not sure what I was doing instead, but it wasn’t reading.

The first year I decided on 25 books and in the last two years, my goal has been to read 50 books a year. I love reading and I read fast so this is a reasonable goal for me. I read fiction and non-fiction. Everything from mysterious spy novels to real-life spy novels (I recommend The Spy and The Traitor – it is a true and unbelievable story). My favourite non-fiction book this year was The Story of the Human Body and if you have a body I recommend it.

The same year I set my first reading goal I decided to run 1000 km that year too. The reasoning was simple enough, I wasn’t consistently running in the winter and I always find it easier to run a little consistently than start again in the spring. With regular runs, 1000 KM would be achievable, but it was something I couldn’t do all at once.

That was the ultimate goal.

To have an outcome (or goal) that required consistent effort. Small action steps that were enjoyable, and pretty easy to do. Easier than not doing them.

BTW this is the secret to successful change, make the behaviour so easy you can’t NOT do it.

I did run a little over 1000 KM that year, so the next year I decide to ski 1000 KM. This was a bit harder. The season is shorter and a lot is outside of my control. The conditions, the weather, the trails, but I managed to do this one too.

Then came this year.

I decided at the beginning of this year to try to ski and run 2020 KM combined and do 10 pull-ups as well as read 50 books.

I started the year being able to do 6 pull-ups.

Now I can do 3.

In spite of all my injuries, I also manage to ski and run, walk/run 1813 KM. If I had counted them sooner I could have made it, but I am not skiing 217 KM tomorrow.

I also cycled 1665 KM for a total of 3478 KM.

This is not about the numbers, that is not the point. The point is if I can manage to do all of this with two significant injuries, think about what you could achieve in a year if you did a little bit every day.

Tomorrow I am going to convince the man to ski 22 KM so I can get to 3500… and to aim for 10 pull-ups this year.

What do you think you could achieve in a year if you did a little every day?

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla