Lessons, insights, inspiration, and blog topics come at me every day and from every angle. Today, in fact, I was gifted the inspiration for this week’s blog as I was training this morning. The powerful message came from a twelve-year-old boy, with a dream. As a 58-year-old man, it can be hard to learn from a child, many decades my junior, but wow! I was reminded there is incredible power in doing one more, when you don’t think you can.
Every Wednesday and Saturday morning I go to an outdoor training park on the beach, not far from my home. It is there I do my muscle-ups, chin ups, dips, push ups, squats, and other resistance training activities. There is a regular group of people who train there consistently. We say hello, have some light conversation and then get into our training session. Well, this morning there was a new face, a fresh face, a young face. It was a 12-year-old boy I had never seen before. I said good morning and got on with my training.
Now, I am a watcher. I love watching people, for obvious reasons. I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I wasn’t! As I watched this boy do his training, one thing struck me. I could tell he was on a mission. For what I didn’t know, but his behaviour said it all. In fact, he challenged me this morning and he got me looking at myself and my own training. As I watched him do several exercises, like chin ups, which is hard for anyone, I noticed a common theme. Just as he was struggling on a repetition after he had already done several – a place where many would stop and tell themselves they had done enough – he would do one more. As I watched him, each time I thought to myself, he will never complete that extra repetition. But guess what? He did the extra repetition, every time.
After a while of observation, I just had to tell him how impressive and exceptional what he was doing really was. He explained he was training for gymnastics, and I didn’t need to ask but I knew he had big dreams. He was training on his own, he trained for over an hour, and he did a countless number of extra repetitions that he may not even think he could do. He did them anyway. I jogged away from my workout inspired and excited to share this experience with you. I want to encourage you, as I am now encouraging myself, to get into the habit of doing just one more, even when you don’t think you can.
One more what? One more repetition, one more step, one more call, one more email, one more compliment, one more sentence, one more prayer, one more call out for help, or one more of anything that will move you closer to your dream, vision or the person you are aspiring to become. There are so many benefits of doing just one more when you don’t think you can. It will stretch and strengthen your self-belief and confidence. It will grow you, your health, your relationships, your business, your book, or whatever it is, exponentially. It will inspire others to do one more. It will compound and multiply the results you experience in your life.
The challenge with doing one more when you don’t believe you can, is that you don’t believe you can. This will require a mindset shift. It will require you to start to understand and believe that your capacity is greater than what you currently imagine. My attitude is, why not just give it a go and see what happens? I think you will surprise and delight yourself with what really is possible when you do one more when you don’t think you can. Have the courage to do it today.
My podcast with Michael Harris this week is called The law of GOYA. Do you know what GOYA stands for? It is Get Off Your Ass! It means get into action. He has an inspiring story of overcoming a serious skiing accident as a child, addiction issues for many years, and the prospect of losing use of his legs. How did he overcome? The law of GOYA, and, doing one more when he didn’t think he could. What if, each day, you could just add one more ‘something’ onto whatever you are doing that is important to you, even if you don’t initially think you can? Think about the compound effect of that mindset and simple action. It would transform your 2023, and your life. So please, for your own sake and that of the people you care about, do just one more, even when you don’t think you can.