Limitation by labels

My friend Krista Schaus, won a Bodybuilding competition yesterday in Canada. Just 6 weeks earlier she won another competition, and 4 weeks ago she won a powerlifting competition while setting a deadlift record for her Province. While there may not be anything news worthy to the general population in this news, she had just blown away 2 stereo types and some pretty seriously beliefs. Beliefs such as training for powerlifitng and bodybuilding are so different they are mutually exclusive, and it is not possible to stay lean and muscular enough to compete in several bodybuilding competitions over several months.

Krista's achievements got me thinking about labels, and how we like to identify with particular parts of our lives, "I am cyclist", "I am a mother", "I am an accountant". When we take on these labels we take on the culture associated with them (you see all the cyclist on the weekend with the special clothes and bikes etc), which is great however part of the label also includes stereotypes and limitations. It is not so much a concern to me what limitations other people put on me, but the ones I my put on myself.

Am I limiting myself with my own labels?

This past year I have transitioned from working full time in the corporate world to part time while I started my own wellness business. At one point I was ready to leave my corporate job completely as I felt I couldn't do both. Fortunately I recognised (just in time) that it wasn't that I couldn't do both, it was that I believed both labels had limitations that made them mutually exclusive. My 2 jobs give me a balanced perspective on life and a greater understanding of people in general, and I enjoy them both. Remove the label, remove the limitation. I haven't done any powerlifting style training in 6 weeks, however I trained on Saturday and my bench was awesome. It shouldn't have been but it was.

I see many Figure girls that hold their labels so tightly that it not only imposes limits on their lives, it controls their lives. What they weigh, their body fat, their food is so in focus all year round that they forget about the other things they are.

Removing your labels doesn't mean you change the things that you do, it means you change the way you think about the things that you do.

Lisa