Have you ever told yourself that there are some things you just can’t do? I am pretty sure we have all done that. My question is, if you haven’t tried before, how do you know? We often put a lid on our potential and we limit our capacity by limiting beliefs that have no basis in what is actually true for us. You can spend as much time in your mind as you like hypothesising why you can’t do something, or you can just give it a go. Capacity is not a physical thing, or a willpower thing, it is a state of mind thing.

I have recently been challenged in my own thinking about capacity and inspired by a young man who has effectively taken away all my excuses for not believing in my potential. In my podcast this week called Run for wishes, with Sean Bell, my thinking was radically expanded, and I hope this message does the same for you. I won’t go into the whole story, you can listen to that, however, what I do want to tell you is that you can do far more than you are doing, and possibly think you can. Me too!

Sean, after losing a close friend at the age of 18, decided to honour his friend and raise awareness and money for charity and made the decision that he would run 50 marathons in 50 days. Yes, you read that correctly, and I also wrote that correctly… 50 marathons in 50 days! That is one marathon every day for 50 days! There would be many people, possibly even me if I am being honest, who would say that running 50 marathons in 50 days is not physically possible. There would be many educated people who could go to lengths to prove that the body is not capable of withstanding that volume of effort for such an intense period. The muscular capacity, the ability to recover, the body’s energy systems and the human capacity would all be stretched, pushed, and punished to the max. So, even with the science, and even with the opinions of many people, how did Sean do it? In fact, as you hear him talk about it, you may also ask, how did it do it so seemingly easily? The answer, capacity is a mindset!

The body will go where the mind believes it can go. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was comprehensive preparation involved, both mentally, physically, and nutritionally to be able to do it. The bottom line, however, was that Sean believed he could and then decided he would. As we were talking about how he was able to do it, he said the most important thing he required was an impenetrable ‘why?’ He asked himself the following question: What are ten reasons why I will achieve this audacious goal? He made a list of ten powerful reasons, and each day he got up to prepare for his next marathon, often feeling like going back to bed, he read this list, and knew why he would successfully do it again on that day.

I resonated so much with what Sean was saying, as I reflected to the moment, whilst working seven days per week in two businesses, when I decided to write my first book with no time, no skills, no experience, and no qualifications. If it wasn’t for a clear vision and many compelling reasons I would not be where I am today, living the amazing life I live. Capacity is a mindset, and your potential is unlimited, so I hope after reading this blog, and listening to the podcast with Sean, you will set your sights on something that scares you.

You see, the achievement of an audacious goal, or seemingly impossible aspiration is not in reaching the finish line. It lies in the simple steps you take every day. Sean just focused on the next lamppost, not running across the finish line of his 50^th marathon. I just focused on the few words I would write every day, not a 50,000-word manuscript that was required. When you focus on the weight you want to lose, the money you want in savings, the book you want to write, the marathon you want to finish, it can be so easy to come to the erroneous conclusion that you can’t do it. When you focus on the daily steps required, and commit to keep going, you will soon know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that you can do it. Whatever it may be.

Sean Bell is now on the verge of running from Cairns to Melbourne, a distance of 3700 km. He calls it Run for Wishes and is raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation. He will be running on average 60km for 60 days to raise $60k! How can he do it? Simple, he has a strong reason, he will be ultra-prepared, he will just focus on one step and one day at a time, and because he knows that capacity is a state of mind.