The other day I was listening to the radio and they were talking with voters about what they wanted most. A woman got on the air and was expressing her concern about changes in medicare and medicaid because after all she was getting old (a whopping 62) and with age comes illness. What? That is only her assumption and a false one at that. While she has diabetes and a host of other issues, that isn’t the norm nor is it necessary. I know a lot of folks over 60 years of age who are in great shape. This woman made the assumption that with age (and today 60 is the new forty) comes illness.
Her commentary made me think about the false assumptions we each make about our lives. In fact, watching TV recently (and that is a rarity) I had one of my own shattered. I’ve heard for years and years how hard it is for a woman to lose weight once she passes 50, yet as I watched on a PBS special with Dr. Joel Furman, Alicia Steele who works for PBS and is 56 years old, was sharing how she’d dropped 25 pounds in just three months on Dr. Furman’s plan. It shattered the assumptions I’d been told and believed. Assumptions that have held me back and I’m betting hold you back too.
So next time you put an excuse forth about why you can’t do something and your assumption sounds like this . . .
I’m too old . . .
I’m too young . . .
I’m too fat . . .
I’m too thin . . .
I’m not smart enough . . .
I don’t know the right people . . .
I don’t have the right education . . .
They told me I couldn’t . . .
They said I wasn’t enough . . .
It’s in my genes . . .
Challenge your assumptions. Make sure that they are fact and not convenient fiction (I say convenient because that is what excuses are for lack of progress.) You may be allowing fiction to stand in the way of very real success. If so, it is time to strip away those assumptions and “I’m not enoughs.” Step into that place where you are enough. It is here, it is now. Claim it.
