Living outside the 'Safe Little Box' ?

It?s been a busy month at the LLSC, with Light The Night walks in cities across Canada raising close to $4.5 million, and The Nike Women?s Marathon (NWM) raising over $10 million across North America in our fight for a cure. Even so, when times are hectic and tough, we tend to regress into our safe zone. ?Read on to see Coach Kaitlyn?s advise to all you runners, walkers and those of us who do neither? When life is hectic and scary, take the plunge. ?Thousands of you across North America have this past October; and we are now millions of dollars closer to finding a cure. ?Thank you all for living outside your safe little box.

One of the most common participant concerns that I hear at the beginning of every season is that they won?t be able to complete the distance. It?s too long, too scary, too far from where they are now. The training won?t work, they won?t have the time, they will get hurt or?tired and burned out.

I?ve said before that the biggest aspect of coaching is encouragement. Quite frankly, I think that most people do believe that they will be able to complete the distance (otherwise they wouldn?t have joined), but they are afraid of failure. So I encourage them and make jokes and tell them that hills are great for scoring a perky butt. Most runners don?t need me to diagnose injury (I send them physio for that anyway), they just need someone who will tell them, again and again, that they can do it.

This week was the first week of skating lessons for my daughters, 6 and 4. And by the first skating lesson, I actually mean first time in skates, on ice, ever. My older daughter is cautious. She doesn?t overly like to try new things, she has always been afraid of failure. I knew that there was the very high potential of a lot of tears on the ice last Wednesday night. Regardless of what you think of different parenting styles, we encourage her to step outside her comfort zone (like it or not), and skating lessons are really expensive, so this was happening (like it or not). Of course, I didn?t explain it to her like that: I told her that the instructors loved kids, that there were lots of kids who didn?t know how to skate, and that the most important thing was that she just try.

She fell. A lot. Of course. But man, didn?t she get back up every single time. She tried everything. She went backwards and forwards and in a circle and she hopped. And I made a complete and utter fool out of myself by waving like a maniac and practically crying with pride and happiness and love.

For a few moments, I was aware that I probably looked like a complete idiot getting so excited about a kid in a puffy snowsuit learning to skate. But that kid is my kid and she was so brave and strong and determined. So I kept waving and cheering and pretending I wasn?t crying.

Stepping outside your comfort zone is hard and scary, no matter our age.

Some sideline inspiration at the NWM

I watched and ran and cheered for Team in Training participants at the Nike Women?s Marathon the weekend before ? people who had been intimidated by the distance, doubtful that they would make it. And I saw a lot of them cry in pain and happiness along the route. And then I watched my girl do her best at something that she found difficult, too.

That?s really what life is all about, isn?t it? It can be so easy to get caught up in your Safe Little Box. But when you take the first step outside, whether that is one step onto the ice or your first group run, your life starts to explode in colours that you never knew existed.

It?s scary at first, but trust me, life is much more fun outside the safety net.

Source: http://llscanada.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/living-outside-the-safe-little-box/

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