How falling over helped me

I tripped and fell while running the other night.

I'd planned to do 10km but had only done 8 when the footbath rose up, and I fell forward and chest-planted the ground.

I winded myself and lay there annoyed.

Pulling myself together, I got up, turned off the emergency alarm on my watch, and decided to walk home (because, you know, you can't run after a fall...)

I had intended to get 10km done that night and now that I hadn't, the extra two would need to be done the next day. Grrr. (I'm training for my first marathon and need to get the kms in)

Then it occurred to me... Did falling automatically mean I couldn't run? My beliefs were so ingrained that I did not even process the situation properly. I just intended to follow my own arbitrary rule. Fall = no running.

So, I put one foot in front of the other, slowly walking, and then I started to quicken the pace and before long I was running.

Sure I had sore ribs and my elbows and knees hurt, but they hurt just as much when walking, and running meant I'd not only get my extra two kms done, but I'd get home quicker.

It was then that I was reminded just how often we defer to our default programming where we make a new decision based on a past decision or framework (either your own or someone else's). We all do it. No processing needed because we "know" something.

We know...

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. (Is it, though?)

Kids should not have more than 2 hours a day screen-time (exactly what study made that the absolute truth?)

FB ads don't work for your business (because you tried it a few times...)

I can't run (OMG, the number of people who tell me this one...they tried it once 10 years ago and they were puffed after 10 metres. They are walkers!).

I encourage you to question what you "know" about yourself, business and the world.

Maybe your kids can eat on the couch occasionally, maybe you can find someone awesome to help with your ads and help you define the strategy. Maybe you can run after all if you start small and build.

It may be unsettling to your world but magic may just happen.