I read a Daily Kick In The Butt from runnersworld.com that sends me a motivational quote each day. Many times I read it and just smile in recognition of a runner’s mind, but this made me stop and consider how important it is to be free to confront the ordinary, and to do something you haven’t done before.

“We run not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves … the more restricted our society and work become the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, ‘You must not run faster than this or jump higher than that.’ The human spirit is indomitable.” Sir Roger Bannister, the first to break the 4-minute mile.

How would you rate yourself on your freedom?

CAN YOU:
Break through to a new personal best?
Change a prevailing pattern of thinking or acting?
Just be yourself?

It seems to me that freedom contains both the commitment and the exhilarating energy that comes with testing limits. What’s being tested are the limits of your thinking. If you’re like me every once in awhile you notice the edges. I do this when I’m running. My mind might think it’s OK to stop by sending me a message that sounds like, “that’s enough!” But when I check the wisdom of my body, I find no barrier to running longer, no pain, no pulls. When my body sends a message, it’s immediate … no question about it. So I smile at my thought factory and wonder why my mind is sending me a message to stop. Then I begin to peek behind the message that would stop me from continuing or pull up short of my goal, or even attempting what could be a personal best.

When I look, I find my conditioned mind; the already existing thought patterns, behavior, responses, actions, beliefs, interpretations, and the overused saying, it is what it is, this is all we can do. But when I look a little deeper, I also find the freedom to question the prevailing thought of the day. To look outside of what has already been determined to be the way.

When you look outside of your conditioned mind, you’ll begin to notice that freedom comes in many shapes and sizes. To name a few:

The freedom to do and the freedom not to do

The freedom to think and the freedom not to think

The freedom to speak and the freedom not to speak

The freedom to change and the freedom not to change

The one I like the best is the freedom to test my theories. What would you like to test today? Just take one idea. Why not take your body. It’s the one thing you carry around with you every day. How could you break through to a new personal best? Maybe it’s taking time for meditation, or a change in diet, or upping the ante on your exercise, or a practice in just being where your body is. For example, if you’re in a conversation and your body is standing in front of another person, be where your body is, instead of doing or thinking about something else.

Your freedom gene may be rusty. Or maybe you only activate it in case of emergency, keeping it visible but enclosed in a glass case. Break the enclosure. Be free to say yes to one idea and test your limits. Maybe you already have the idea. But you didn’t do it! What did you make more important than your freedom to act?

You may find that you go back to how you are conditioned to respond. It may be most comfortable, but doesn’t free you up to test the limits of your thought into action, your creation into manifestation.

Test your limits this week and let me know what happens. Can you break through to a new personal best? Yes!

My love goes with you as you work with this uplifting moment.