What Is Possible For Me? What Am I Capable Of?
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Episode 62 – What Is Possible For Me? What Am I Capable Of?
Sometimes at the beginning of a big change or when thinking of a
big, far-off dream it all looks too, well, big and far off.
And overwhelming.
And exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time.
We wonder if we should go for that goal and we question ‘What is possible for me?’
The truth of what is possible for you is beyond what you can currently imagine. You are more capable than you know – yet. You only find out what is possible for you if you go on a journey to find out.
Here’s what some of the most respected people in the world have to say about what you, yes you, are capable of
‘When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.’
Brene Brown
‘The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.’
Ralph Waldo Emerson
‘Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.’
Francis of Assisi
‘The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit.’
Jim Rohn
And my personal favourite:
‘There is no paycheck that can equal the feeling of contentment that comes from being the person you are meant to be.’
Oprah Winfrey
So, what is possible for me?
You’ve probably heard that we overestimate what we can get done
in a year, but underestimate what we can do in a decade.
Life is going to happen anyway and you can make incredible
changes in a few short years.
If I look back to where I was 10 years ago I was:
- Living in a different country, ready for a new adventure
- Wanting to meet a life partner, but not getting anywhere with it
- In a good job with great pay and benefits, but knowing it
wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing with my life and all my friends were asking me why I would consider giving up
what I had - Living what appeared to be a great life, but feeling somehow
this wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing
Now I’m:
- A published author and a thought leader in a completely new-
to-me field where I’m doing cutting edge work - I’m earning great money on my own terms and loving my
work and the freedom it gives me - My work has helped many people achieve their own life goals
to the point where I get (happy) teary when I think about
what this means to them and their future, and their loved-
ones and then what about all the lives that they are changing
through their own work? It’s heart-exploding stuff. - I’m living in a house I nearly completely own in a rainforest
with parrots and the occasional wallaby in the garden - I’m also living with my life partner
- An Australian citizen
But let’s also share the other side, the darker side, because this is
real life.
I didn’t make these changes without going through challenging
times and I don’t lead a charmed life.
To give you some perspective here are some of the shitty things
that also happened in the last 10 years:
- I got cancer and wondered for a while if I was going to die
(I’m now clear) - I over-committed myself in the business and nearly caused us
to lose our home at one point - I got divorced, which happened many years after the breakup, but was still painful
- I had huge difficulties with becoming a step mum to three
kids - I went through a deep and painful healing of childhood
trauma, which decided it no longer wanted to be ignored
So to be clear, I’m completely fine.
I am not saying this to get sympathy and at some level I was fine
all along, but was the last 10 years a bed of roses?
Hell no!
There were plenty of opportunities for life to get in the way, and it did,
some of the time.
No one sails through life unscathed.
We are all dealing with our own stuff.
Some of it we have no control over, some of it we do.
Why I am sharing all this negativity when this is a podcast/blog
about what is possible for you?
To help you with your expectations of what striving to find out what
you are capable of can look like, behind the scenes.
We all are here, trying our best, getting hit by setbacks – just rock your thing anyway
In Think And Grow Rich (a must-read), the result of 25 years of
research into the most successful men in America (which was
published in 1937, hence the lack of women) Napoleon Hill writes:
‘Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the
seed on an equal or greater benefit.’
This is a big statement.
Of course, I don’t know your personal circumstances and neither
does Napoleon Hill.
I do know though that most people experience more internal
struggle than even their best friends may realize, and that in my
own life even the most terrible things that happened, over time,
showed me my own strength.
What I am saying is, don’t expect everything to go perfectly, it
won’t.
Expect setbacks, related to your goal and unrelated, know you’ll
learn from them.
Experiencing setbacks often isn’t a sign that you should stop.
It’s a valuable and integral part of the human learning experience.
They are going to happen regardless, so why not get them on the
way to achieving something deeply meaningful to you?
What else is important to know on your journey to that big goal that you wonder if you are capable of?
Know that even the people you most admire didn’t start with a fully
mapped out plan and at times, had no idea what they are doing.
Literally, they had NO IDEA, what they were doing.
If you think about it logically, how else could it have been?
If you’ve never done something before you can only start by being
clueless.
Then finding the best possible thing to do next and seeing what
happens with that.
Then doing the next best step you can think of after that.
If I go back to starting my podcast – obviously I had no idea how
to start a podcast.
I had to do some reading and find out from other people who had done
it before.
I discovered you need cover art, more than one episode to start
with, audio files in a particular format, and if you are doing it
yourself – audio software to edit your files.
You also need to know what your podcast is about before any of
that.
I was stuck on step one for six whole months because I didn’t want
to start a typical interview podcast but didn’t know what I did want.
Of course, you can and should learn from those that have gone
before you.
I make every effort so that my own programs are as step-by-step
as possible.
But don’t imagine that everyone else has a plan that goes from step
one to his or her big dream.
They felt just as confused as you in the beginning and also
questioned their own capabilities.
So knowing everyone else had setbacks and had no idea what to do at times, why would you not go for your big dream?
Why not go for what you want?
Life is short, and precious.
And in striving, and sometimes failing, and going on the journey
and eventually getting there…
…I believe you’ll find out for yourself what you are really capable of
and what is possible for you.
Now I’d love to hear from you
Have you doubted yourself and held yourself back because you
wondered if you were capable?
Or have you achieved something you previously thought was out of
reach?