Perception

We make unconscious decisions about challenges and difficulties. Things are only as hard as they seem. So my question is, how hard are you making it? You literally are the filter that creates the reality you are experiencing.

We can check our acceptance of challenging training and racing situations by looking at how we accept the daily challenges in our lives, which is a constant right, a series of challenges that seem to always get thrown at us in clumps. You could say in some ways that life is a test itself, in some ways it's like a race, sometimes comfortable, sometimes massively uncomfortable and awkward, nevertheless it changes nothing in terms of what is going to happen.

If we find resistance in our lives, it is a win, because if we get irritable, frustrated, angry, fearful, and are prone to rumination and anxiety around challenges and discomfort then you can bet that it is following your life into any kind of performance orientated pursuit.

Is life a performance? You can bet your "life" it is.

We make thousands of unconscious decisions everyday that we mostly unconsciously break down into likes / dislikes and acceptable / unacceptable. Now it's not the decisions that are the main issue here, it's the fact that you are unconscious of it, you can't change what you are not aware of. Our kryptonite then is a lack of awareness.

If you are aware that you are making decisions to break down your experience into acceptable and unacceptable then you can reflect on how this is working against you both in the realm of performance and life, you begin to understand in the passage of time that the only thing that you are resisting is yourself, how?

Think about it, you choose a challenge or a discomfort like a long race, then you come out against yourself breaking it into acceptable and unacceptable, the nature of the race is not at all interested in what you will accept, it's coming at you full force with reality.

Reality does not give a rats arse about your thoughts, your beliefs, likes, dislikes and preferences, it's not working against you, it just is how it is.

What you perceive you receive!

Your Perception is a reception that sends a message to your body on how it's going to react to this challenge. What would you choose, flow or resistance? All the dark little corners of your life that your resistance hides in, imagine how much more calm your life would be without the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that resistance brings with it.

Imagine a life without any kind of bitterness, where you are able to flow and roll with the punches. Now if you can bring this to any kind of performance, then it doesn't take a genius to see the application and its benefits.

When you change your mind you change your perception, what seems insurmountable becomes possible, what has been irritating and frustrating becomes synergistic and it brings with it the feeling of flow.

Want flow? Let go!

Flow means you let go of the hooks that keep you stranded in mediocrity, meaning you let go of what keeps you from your own life and sport potential. It means allowing yourself to forget what you think you know and believe about yourself in terms of what you can't do, and begin to open up to what could happen if you just let go of those ideas and surrender into possibility.

So yes, your perception is running the show. You have a filter that colours your world, we all do, and importantly, all you have to do is become aware of what colour that filter is running and stop blaming the world for it, it's not what is happening out there that is important, it's what is happening in here as a response. You can apply this across your whole life, what are you blaming the world for?

Forget the world out there, nothing out there makes us as uncomfortable as we make ourselves in here.

Try and see this the way it really is, what feeling, emotion or sense perception have you ever had that arose outside of you?

Deep challenge, pain and yes indeed even suffering can be a portal that makes this obvious if we just surrender our defences and allow life to teach us what it has to teach us, it's not trying to harm us, it's trying to get us to grow.

So my wish for you on a Monday afternoon is that you can take your licks, pay your dues and grow past it.