Your Greatness is at the End of Your Comfort Zone

By Janet Christensen

A couple of months ago I started working with a personal trainer at the YMCA. I took this bold step for a few reasons:

• I have arthritis in my knees and to avoid injections of foreign substances and surgery I thought I would try exercise, even though I thought it might be just as painful.
• I wanted to feel more energetic and increase my fitness level.
• I wanted to get rid of my “flabdominals.”
• I was spending money on a Y membership yet was having trouble making time to get there.
  
• I know that being accountable to someone else will motivate me to do it – make the appointment and I will show up.
• I decided to try to the “burn more calories than what you take in” approach to weight loss.
  

When I completed the application form for personal training I listed my preference for a woman trainer, thinking that a woman would relate more readily to a mid-fifties woman and my obvious limitations to becoming lean and fit. I knew very well my list of reasons why I could maybe only get a little fitter and toned – I was too old to really take this seriously, after all, I'm a grandma, my body is showing signs of age with arthritis, and I am “getting up there.” I was not going to expect miracles; it was much smarter to limit my expectations.

The first challenge to my expected outcome was the call from Russ Hicks, a mid-20's personal trainer and registered massage therapist who called me from the Y. Where did my mature woman trainer that I had imagined go? I went along and met with Russ, fully intending to politely assert my need for a “woman.” However, Russ' enthusiasm and qualifications as both a trainer and RMT impressed me and I committed to twenty sessions with him.

Two months have passed and I have surpassed many of my perceived limitations. Russ has cleverly figured out that I can be competitive at times and he has used this to challenge me to exceed what his other clients can do – even the younger ones! He started me off slowly, building up my confidence, endurance, strength, and abilities. In just a few weeks, I find myself amazed at what I can achieve and how energized I feel. Russ believed in my abilities and what I could do before I did. He encourages me and sets the bar a little higher every time. If someone had told me when I started out that I would be doing three sets of one hundred and twenty abdominal exercises alternating with twenty-five push ups as the start of my workout, I would have told them “no way!” yet I am doing just that.

I joke with Russ that he must stay awake at night thinking of new ways to torture me, and I say that I am going for my appointment with “Attila the Hun” to my family. Joking aside, if had a trainer who would be willing to settle for my limitations, I would be shortchanged. It has not escaped me that I was also deluding myself to think a woman trainer would buy into my theory in the first place.

Not only have I benefited from becoming more fit, flexible, and energized, I have learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of limiting thinking. I was willing to settle for far less than I was capable of because I placed limits on myself and did not want to move out of my comfort zone. Now my idea of what I can achieve has expanded and I realize that my greatness is at the end of my comfort zone – not just in my physical fitness, yet in all areas of my life.

So now instead of limiting myself because of my age, I will venture forth saying “I'm fifty-something, fit, fabulous, and flirting with the edge of my comfort zone.” Your greatness is at the end of your comfort zone!

Janet Christensen passionately inspires potential as a professional speaker, Passion Map facilitator and writer. She can be reached through her company Unlimiting Potential at (519) 434-5397 or toll free 1-888-779-3061 fax (519) 434-8344 email info@janetchristensen.com Web site www.janetchristensen.com. Published in Networking Today, July 2005.