As I was preparing to run my first marathon, there were a number of things working against me:
- I’d never run more than 10 miles in my life.
- I had 8 weeks to prepare.
- I got zero hours of sleep the night before.
To any expert looking in at my situation, they’d see a failure just waiting to happen. Instead, I ran a sub 4-hour marathon that would continue to be my personal record for the next four races before eventually training hard to beat it in Buenos Aires.
Had I been rational and calculating, I’d have come to the same conclusion as everyone else: I’m about to fail.
Luckily, in this case, I was neither rational nor calculating. I puffed up my chest, told myself it would be no big deal, and ran like crazy. It worked! I mean, it wasn’t “no big deal”—I couldn’t walk for two days after and I lost a toenail (may it rest in peace)—but that “fake” confidence helped me… a lot.
This is what’s amazing about the human brain; it’ll do whatever you tell it if you use the right tone of voice. Study after psychological study show that your reality can be completely distorted by your beliefs.
Here’s just one example. Stanford researchers found people who think willpower is limited have limited willpower. Not so interesting, right? We all know willpower is limited. Or is it? Shockingly, they also found people who think willpower is not limited have incredible, lasting willpower.
For decades, science has tried to prove through other channels one or the other is true. But now we’re learning it’s really neither; whatever your brain says is what your reality is.
This is also what’s unfortunate about the human brain. If you tell it the wrong things, it’ll still believe them.
Use this knowledge wisely. Don’t put yourself or others in peril with misplaced bravado, but don’t let the way you talk to yourself keep you from an important habit, a big challenge, or a lofty goal.
In the words of the great Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right.”
Good reminder. Lack of confident is usually a day to day problem.
I always cringed at any of the nuggets of “wisdom” offered in self help books and forums, this particular nugget was always an oft cited a staple. Bur … in my life it really has worked. I’ve started businesses and turned around unsuccessful ones, I took my family on a 3 year road trip around Asia and Europe in my mid forties ( colleagues and family were incredulous), completely dropped sugar ( I loved chocolate intensely!) and grains from my diet 3 years ago and so on and so on …
So now I don’t even question it, if an interesting project or need for personal change presents itself I just jump in, so now I guess it’s become self fulfilling, I still don’t think I could run a marathon though
Don’t write off that marathon just yet Steve. Like you, I have made some major changes to my diet – going vegetarian, cutting out almost all grains and processed sugar (including chocolate which I thought I would never be able to do), and I can safely say I don’t miss any of it cos I am so enjoying the increase in my health and energy level.
I am 50. I started the year at over 80kg (normal weight before I had kids was 40kg so that is VERY overweight for me. I have currently lost over 13kg since February and still going strong.
I also started back to running training just under 2 months ago, after a long break due to problems with my foot last year. When I started I could barely run 1km without stopping for a breather. Now I can run 13km quite comfortably and am aiming for 25km by the start of next month and a marathon either later this year or early next year.
Just cos you can’t do it in the timescale that Tyler & others manage doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all. Plan your training and your progress according to your lifestyle, schedule and level of fitness and you may well surprise yourself with what you can achieve.
Good post. Going to start convincing my brain it has more willpower than it is willing to admit to
This is so true. Lack of confidence limits you a lot and it lies to your brain. Only when you overcome your fear and doubt, then you see that you have been deceived.
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