As I pursue a wholistic view of health and discipleship in preparation for our Personal Wellness Discipleship Training School I've been challenged a lot over the last four months to change my view of who I am and what I am capable of...my ceiling.
The ceiling effect is something I learned about when studying Fitness Theory and basically it means that our bodies are made with limits of what we are capable of in terms of cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
With consistent and challenging training in all areas of physical fitness we can reach our ceiling or full potential.
This makes sense to me as we are not all capable or called to become elite athletes...but how many of us have truly understood where the ceiling actually is? How many of us have settled for a false ceiling that keeps us functioning below our true capabilities?
During my childhood I formed my own idea of what my ceiling was and this believed ceiling has
followed me through my teen years and far into adulthood. Not many people have challenged this belief (the worst offender being myself!) and so my believed ceiling shifted to fact in my mind with evidence to back it up. Here are a few of the false ceilings I built in my thinking:
1. Athletic skills should come naturally without any hard work or practice so I'm not athletic--I didn't make the track team tryouts, in gym class I was never picked first for teams, coaches never tried to convince me to sign up for sports....Now I can see how silly I was and how much learning I missed out on by not trying out for sports teams. Very few people are born knowing how to throw a ball perfectly accurate, run their absolute fastest, jump high, or play sports without a lot of training, practice, and hard work. Athletes train and practice and the body takes time to learn and adapt to new movements and activities.
2. I can run, but not that fast--I never made the track team tryouts, I was chosen to play defence in soccer not another position which all the fast kids were chosen for, I was in the middle of the pack when we ran "the mile" in gym class...how fast is "that fast" anyway?? What was I thinking!? Of course I couldn't run as fast as the other kids...I didn't practice running! I didn't train my muscles!
3. I'm not that strong--whenever heavy lifting was required others would jump in and take over for me, I was not asked to help move heavy things. This one was challenged by default during my university years when I moved many times and I had no choice but to carry all the boxes because I had no one to help me. I realized I could carry quite a bit after all. I also saw other women moving with strength...but I still felt intimidated by the weights at the gym...
4. My weight and size and shape have been pretty much the same since I was a teenager so this must be the "way I am" and what I need to learn to love--although my weight and clothing sizes changed a little bit over the years exercise and diet always brought me back to the same place where I wouldn't change much. Once again my exercise and training were not super challenging--I wasn't really pushing myself so once I reached that weight/size I didn't bother to try harder. This was me...or was it?
And then I was challenged by a friend who looked at me and saw that there was some heaviness I was carrying around that was more like excess baggage than my true self. This person challenged me to look at my ceiling...
Was I pushing as hard as I could when I ran? No. You can run faster than that, you're just not trying.
Why did I expect myself to be perfect at something I hadn't done before and had never practiced? It's going to be hard at first and you have to study it and do it over and over to get better.
Did I really want to be strong? If so I needed to challenge myself and lift weights at the gym...
To find my true self I needed to be humble and ok with looking awkward as I lifted tiny little weights at the gym, to fight those voices inside my head and get up every morning to work out, to imagine that these limits I had created might not actually reflect my true identity and capabilities.
Three years ago I ran a half marathon and proved to myself I was capable of running farther than I ever had before. This May I am running another one and trying to beat my time...I know my body can go faster than it did before. I have to believe I can do it before I can push toward that goal...some days it feels more like a fairytale dream than a reality...and yet when I challenge the voices in my head I can lace up my shoes and run faster than I have before.
So today I am stronger than I have ever been before, I can run faster than I ever have before, I am wearing a smaller size than I wore at age 14...and I'm still not sure I can see the ceiling. I'm not the person I thought I was...now I'm on a journey to discover the woman I am: the woman I was created to be.
I keep expecting things to get easier, but every day requires choices and effort--getting up in the morning is still a battle most days, weights still feel heavy, my muscles feel sore, I get tired...and yet when I remind myself of the surprises I have already discovered I am so excited to discover how "fearfully and wonderfully made" I truly am (see Psalm 139:14).
The ceiling effect is something I learned about when studying Fitness Theory and basically it means that our bodies are made with limits of what we are capable of in terms of cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
With consistent and challenging training in all areas of physical fitness we can reach our ceiling or full potential.
This makes sense to me as we are not all capable or called to become elite athletes...but how many of us have truly understood where the ceiling actually is? How many of us have settled for a false ceiling that keeps us functioning below our true capabilities?
During my childhood I formed my own idea of what my ceiling was and this believed ceiling has
 |
| Me and my brother when we were kids... who would this little girl become? |
1. Athletic skills should come naturally without any hard work or practice so I'm not athletic--I didn't make the track team tryouts, in gym class I was never picked first for teams, coaches never tried to convince me to sign up for sports....Now I can see how silly I was and how much learning I missed out on by not trying out for sports teams. Very few people are born knowing how to throw a ball perfectly accurate, run their absolute fastest, jump high, or play sports without a lot of training, practice, and hard work. Athletes train and practice and the body takes time to learn and adapt to new movements and activities.
2. I can run, but not that fast--I never made the track team tryouts, I was chosen to play defence in soccer not another position which all the fast kids were chosen for, I was in the middle of the pack when we ran "the mile" in gym class...how fast is "that fast" anyway?? What was I thinking!? Of course I couldn't run as fast as the other kids...I didn't practice running! I didn't train my muscles!
3. I'm not that strong--whenever heavy lifting was required others would jump in and take over for me, I was not asked to help move heavy things. This one was challenged by default during my university years when I moved many times and I had no choice but to carry all the boxes because I had no one to help me. I realized I could carry quite a bit after all. I also saw other women moving with strength...but I still felt intimidated by the weights at the gym...
4. My weight and size and shape have been pretty much the same since I was a teenager so this must be the "way I am" and what I need to learn to love--although my weight and clothing sizes changed a little bit over the years exercise and diet always brought me back to the same place where I wouldn't change much. Once again my exercise and training were not super challenging--I wasn't really pushing myself so once I reached that weight/size I didn't bother to try harder. This was me...or was it?
And then I was challenged by a friend who looked at me and saw that there was some heaviness I was carrying around that was more like excess baggage than my true self. This person challenged me to look at my ceiling...
Was I pushing as hard as I could when I ran? No. You can run faster than that, you're just not trying.
Why did I expect myself to be perfect at something I hadn't done before and had never practiced? It's going to be hard at first and you have to study it and do it over and over to get better.
Did I really want to be strong? If so I needed to challenge myself and lift weights at the gym...
 |
| Not just learning to lift weights, but teach others to as well! |
Three years ago I ran a half marathon and proved to myself I was capable of running farther than I ever had before. This May I am running another one and trying to beat my time...I know my body can go faster than it did before. I have to believe I can do it before I can push toward that goal...some days it feels more like a fairytale dream than a reality...and yet when I challenge the voices in my head I can lace up my shoes and run faster than I have before.
So today I am stronger than I have ever been before, I can run faster than I ever have before, I am wearing a smaller size than I wore at age 14...and I'm still not sure I can see the ceiling. I'm not the person I thought I was...now I'm on a journey to discover the woman I am: the woman I was created to be.
I keep expecting things to get easier, but every day requires choices and effort--getting up in the morning is still a battle most days, weights still feel heavy, my muscles feel sore, I get tired...and yet when I remind myself of the surprises I have already discovered I am so excited to discover how "fearfully and wonderfully made" I truly am (see Psalm 139:14).
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