Often when I talk about my world record I feel as if people are disconnected, as if it is something that could never happen to them, interesting, but they don’t relate. It is a frustrating place to be, outside…but one I am quite familiar with…being on the outside. Is it true ? Is a world record really something you can’t achieve ? Why not ?
The answer I often get is a shrug and then a vague statement about how that isn’t ‘who’ the person is. There seems to be this hidden belief that you have to be born special to achieve special things and that as I have a world record, I was born special. At this point I have to refrain from bursting out into gales of laughter because born special I was not. If you had to take a group of people from my school or varsity and pick out the one you would expect to dive to 221 meters (and then make the people choosing pick a woman), I would have made the bottom of the list.
So how did I get there ? Who you are creates the journey and creates the limits you experience because who you think you are inherently includes a whole list of things you can’t do or aren’t and so a list of limits you have to overcome. This is where it gets interesting because this is where the journey starts to change who you are.
The moment you hit an obstacle, the moment you face a place where you stop because you can’t, because you aren’t good at ‘this’, because this is not who you are…that is the moment you get to choose to stay who you think you are or to let the journey change you and become some-one who can, some-one new, a grander, more confident, more daring you!
Who you are creates your initial experience of the journey, it creates obstacles and limits that are unique to who you are but who you are doesn’t stop you from reaching your ‘there’ because you always have a choice to change who you are.
Who you are is not set in stone, it is a choice, a set of habits, a skill like any other. What the journey is always starts out being formed by who you are now, but as you move from ‘here’ to ‘there’ you get to make choices that are uncomfortable and that stretch who you are. Find those choices! Find those moments that are uncomfortable, embrace them and let the journey start to shape who you are. That is the point of grand dreams, the allow you to become who you could be.
What is your grand dream ? Who do you need to start being in order for that dream to become reality ? What gifts are there in the journey you are on that you are resisting because you will not let go of who you think you are ? Why is who you are now so unchanging ?
Why are you holding onto who you are right now so tightly if it isn’t getting you to where you want to be ? Why not let go and let the journey take you where you want to go ? Why not choose who you are ? Why stay stuck with who you were born to be ?