Take some time to look at your life – it can be a small chunk like the last month or six months or you can look at a much bigger portion. This is going to require you to be honest with yourself. You don’t have to tell these things to anyone else but you really do need to examine your motives and results very closely in order to get anything out of your work.

Once you’ve picked a section of time, you want to look at actions you took and then at the results that came from those actions. Although it’s good to look at the wonderful things that have happened so that you can repeat them, just write them down for now and put them aside. You can use them to compare later.

Select the things that didn’t go exactly the way you wanted them to go. Now, look at these events/occurrences and see if you can identify any thoughts that contributed to their development. I’ve used this example before but it’s the most vivid one I can think of. When I was one week away from starting my 2nd 100 mile race in 6 weeks, I started to worry about the heat and the sun and how on earth I was going to be able to endure all that for the long hours I was going to have to be out there – it was pretty wide open so the sun was going to beat down the entire time. I kept thinking that maybe I should pull out and just be happy with the race I had just completed. These thoughts were consuming me. Then low and behold on Wed (before the Friday start day), I suddenly developed severe low back pain to the point that I could not walk. It came on while I was sitting down teaching a class so there wasn’t anything specific I did. I was able to make an appointment with my AIRROSTI provider and she saw me that day. On my way to the appointment I realized what I had done. I had created this back pain to keep me from having to start the race. After all, it’s “socially acceptable” to drop out because you’re injured, right? However, by then I had also realized I really did want to participate in this event and was very psyched up for it. That was fortunate because between that desire and the work of my provider, I was able to make it to the start line just two days later AND complete it. The point to all of this is that I had sabotaged myself almost into not being able to start – all by my thoughts!

And last year I let all the doubts about my abilities once again lead to low back pain 2 weeks before my attempt to run across Tennessee. It was my fears and questions (instead of just trusting in the Universe to take care of me as It always does) that set me up for injury. I am pretty powerful in using the Law of Attraction and you would think that would make me more cognizant of what I am thinking.

This year, the same has almost happened with different problems – first it was the surgery and convalescence and then a different kind of back pain recently  that has been very debilitating.  What brought that on? My indecisiveness and fears of looking stupid to all the other runners.  What if this, what if that? How stupid of me. People already know that I’m slow and old but I’m out there and so what if I don’t finish? Will the world end? Of course not. So why sabotage myself and end up in such pain because of my dumb emotions.

When I realize I’ve done all these things I can plan future events (whether running or otherwise) in a much different mindset. Often we only plan the physical steps to accomplishing what we want. We forget to go into the deeper aspects which are as important (and often more important) – deal with and plan our emotional responses and feelings to anything that could possibly develop as we get ready to embark on a project. Do you make this a part of your planning procedure? Do you take your feelings and emotions into consideration when doing goal setting and plans for goal achieving? You should. We all should. That is what will really lead to our success. All the other techniques we learn are essential for sure. But we also have to put out potential (and desired) emotional responses into every step of the planning procedure.

Finish your list and see if you can determine where you’ve sabotaged yourself. Now, figure out how you’re going to prevent that from happening again. Awareness is key! And now you’re aware.

Terrie