Today, we are going to banish any excuses for poor performance, not running our miles, or even going for runs at all.
A lovely quote I read in a book when writing this process up goes as follows:
“Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible“
That is by Francois De la Rochefoucauld. I really rather like it and it is a great way to start a blog entry that focuses on breaking through excuses.
Blimey, blimey, you’d be amazed at the excuses that I am given from clients in therapy excusing their issues. of course, some are very valid and not to be ignored. Yet in therapy and in life, so many people insist on excusing themselves for all manner of behaviours, thoughts, limitations and mistakes.
Whatever it is you want to do in this lifetime, do you have a set of excuses that you offer up to yourself and others that makes it ok not to do those things? Not to live those dreams?
This self-hypnosis process is all about blasting out and getting rid of old excuses, stopping procrastination and lots of other things besides. Runners often excuse themselves for not getting the miles of their training plans done, or not going out at all, or excuses for a particular poor performance. We can use all kinds of techniques to learn from errors, and those are the kinds of things that feature in my audio programme ‘Hypnosis For Running’ but this process today is just to get rid of any excuses when it comes to running – excuses that are inhibiting your success.
Seven Steps To Blast Through Old Limiting Excuses:
Step One: Just ensuring that you are in a comfortable position where you are going to be undisturbed for a while, with your eyes comfortably closed, your arms and legs uncrossed and just focusing on your breathing.
Hypnotise yourself. You can do so by any means you desire or know of. You can use the process in my self-hypnosis book, use the free audio at this website to practice or have a look at the following articles as and when you need them; they are basic processes to help you simply open the door of your mind:
Using eye fixation for self-hypnosis.
The Betty Erickson Self-Hypnosis Method video clip.
Using Magnetic Hands for Self-Hypnosis.
Once you have spent enough time doing this, move on to the next step…
Step Two: In this receptive state of mind, have a really good think about something important that you wish to achieve with your running. Perhaps think about a desired outcome you’d like to achieve such as completing a 10k, a half marathon or a marathon, perhaps you just want to get fitter, perhaps you want to run to reduce your weight – as you think about it though, make sure it is a running goal that you are perhaps procrastinating about, or making excuses for not doing.
Importantly at this stage, as you think about that outcome, that goal, or that achievement with your running, think about the actions you’d have to take, the actions that are required for you to accomplish this thing.
When you think about those actions you’d have to take, notice and become really tuned in to yourself… What is it that you actually do instead? What feelings and thoughts come up before you get sidetracked? What are the excuses that you come up with to make it ok not to accomplish?
If the excuses do not directly make themselves obvious, perhaps notice how your thoughts redirect you, and what thoughts do actually redirect. We can refer to those thoughts as excuses for the rest of this exercise.
All the time, notice subtle thoughts, images in your mind, feelings that you feel and be very perceptive of this. being in self-hypnosis should amplify those and make them more obvious than usual.
You might find that if you attempted to put these feelings or thoughts into words, they possibly sound silly – that is the stuff we are after! They are deep routed rationalisations and excuses that tend to get buried and hidden usually, yet have all the power to keep you off track to achieving that running outcome you really do desire.
So get as much of an awareness as possible of these excuses, notice how you perceive them if they have sounds to them, any internal dialogue, feelings and so on… Then when you really have a feel for them, move on to the next step.
Step Three: Now we want to assess the excuses and see what they are up to…
The best way to ascertain the pattern of your excuses is to ask yourself some questions and trust your intelligent reasoning as you respond … Is it really just an excuse? Do I want to keep this excuse? How does using the excuse serve me? Is there some way that I gain from using this excuse?
if there is some valid value you receive from this excuse, then you can allow yourself to keep those parts of it, you can maintain them should you wish.
With the answers and getting an idea of the purpose of your excuse, move on to the next step.
Step Four: Did you ever say the expression “Hell NO!”?? Did you ever deeply refute and refuse something with a strong sense of “NO!” ??
Now is the time to recall a time when you said or felt like saying “Hell No!”
Maybe it was an occasion when you were absolutely disgusted at something, when you totally refuted something, or maybe when something was utterly and completely unacceptable to you. Get in to a state of “Hell No!” and the more disgusted, the more you mean and refute with that sense of “Hell No!” the better!!
Imagine that you spread this state throughout your body. imagine it as a colour. Imagine the sense of it connecting to every cell in your being. Spean as much time as you possibly can to ensure you get a very deep rooted sense of “Hell no!” running through every cell of your being.
Step Five: Imagine your excuse in front of you.
Tread on it.
That’s right, stamp on it. Stomp on it. jump and down viciously on it. Use all the mustered up power of your “hell no” state and bounce up and down on that excuse.
Pick up and throw it to the ground. Tear it in two, cast it to the floor again and stamp ferociously upon it.
Keep stomping. keep stamping. Unleash every ounce of your “hell no” state upon that empty excuse. make it sorry! Only move on when you are sure as possible that you have got all that pent up state unleashed on that excuse and it is fully destroyed.
Step Six: Have a good test to make sure you did this.
Think about your running goal, your desired running outcome or that thing that you want to achieve.
Notice what happens when you imagine taking the actions that move you toward that outcome. Notice what you feel right now, what thoughts you have and what images come into your mind as you think about it.
Get a real sense to see if there are any other excuses lurking in the darkness somewhere. If you get a flavour of any, then return to the earlier steps and run through the process again. Think about how any lingering excuses can interfere with the very enjoyment of your life, how they can be hurdles to your running accomplishments and leave your life a lot less satisfying.
When you are sure that you are free of those last remnants of excuses in relation to this running outcome, then move on to the next step.
Step Seven: Remind yourself o your state of “hell no” and how you used this with such conviction. think about a time in your future, ideally the next occasion when you will start working on this goal, or moving toward that outcome… Just imagine that as you start doing that thing, you smash the last remnants of the old excuse with a massive “Hell NO!” response… Then imagine watching yourself doing that thing, taking that action, leading that life and accomplishing that.
Enjoy the beautiful feelings you get with knowing that you get that done in the end and how wonderful it feels.
Once you have enjoyed enough of that, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.
Then – and this is important – go and take an action that is undeniably convincing to you that you have gotten rid of all those old excuses and start hatching your plans for enhancing your running experience. Do that now. today!
Have a fabulous Easter weekend and I’ll be back next week for the build up to marathon one.
