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08/03/2022 To celebrate Internationals Women's Day on 8th March, we've dedicated an entire week to hearing from some of the most influential and inspiring female voices that we've been fortunate to work with. Celebrating their sports, their training and their unique takes on the wellness industry, with advice and practical tips for both the current crop and future generations of women in fitness. |
Georgina Gabriel is a movement coach with over a decade's experience, specialising in flexibility, yoga and calisthenics. Georgie is a CFL2 certified coach and long time collaborator with Bulldog Gear, as well as School of Calisthenics, who runs online workshops and classes, provides downloadable programmes and works one-on-one with clients.
Here Georgie shares with us her thoughts on why you should never let your perceptions of other peoples' performances hold you back from your goals.
Have you ever just not started something because you were scared of being bad at it? Have you ever quit because you failed once, or maybe a few times?
Sometimes I think we can get really caught up in seeing someone else perform the end result of a skill making it look so seamlessly perfect that we tell ourselves not to bother trying, or that maybe it's just not for us. Maybe we try a few times and it doesn’t go to plan so we throw the towel in and head right back to our comfort zone.
What excuses do you tell yourself? I find when I get a moment like this I need to take a step back and just listen to how I am talking to myself, what are my excuses telling me? What is the real problem? Is it because ‘it's not for me’ or is it because I am scared to fail, is it because I am scared of what other people will think if it doesn’t go perfectly?
How we are talking to ourselves can really be a chance for us to take a moment to find out what the actual root problem is? When you work out what is actually stopping you from putting yourself out of your comfort zone you can decide whether it's something you actually want to do or not. If you think you would love the feeling of being able to do ‘X’ then you know you need to go for it and the excuses are just fears trying to keep you in your comfort bubble.
As humans we love comfort, it’s natural to want to stay close to what we know. However outside of that bubble is a whole lot of excitement you didn’t know you could have and without stepping outside you will never know what you are truly capable of.
The person you are watching perform or make something look so effortless wasn’t always good at it. They will have failed countless times, they just refused to give up. I personally don’t believe any masters of their skills or sport have just had it come to them or had it ‘easy’. Anything you want to be good at takes consistency, dedication and the ability to accept FAILURE.
Failure becomes part of the journey because each failure is a lesson and each time we fail we actually get one step closer to succeeding as we learn more about ourselves, and the path towards where we want to be becomes clearer.
I remember walking into my first Crossfit gym and seeing other women flying about on a pull up bar, my mind was actually blown! I had only ever seen male friends of mine doing pull ups back then and internally had never considered that I could do it too. That one moment of watching other women kick ass was so empowering, it actually changed everything for me. It was a huge turning point that hooked me into training because other women being bad ass made me want to be badass with them!
What I found was that the journey towards a goal is the fun bit, problem solving and connecting the dots. The little wins are like these powerful little nuggets of self confidence and the realization that what you want is actually possible!
When you achieve that goal as exciting as it is, it kind of wears off and then you’re already thinking what’s next!? This is the beauty of training though because there is always another destination and so you move through the process again.
Let other people be your inspiration to better and empower yourself as opposed to seeing others as competition (competition has its own place for sure) or their wins as a chance to put yourself down for not being there ‘YET’.
Remember every person you see out there smashing it has failed countless times, and they still have those days now too.
Your worth is not defined by your ability to do a pull up, muscle up, get the fastest workout time etc but instead by how you choose to show up daily for yourself.
What would you love to be able to do in your training?
What is currently stopping you from being able to get there?
Is it that you need to show up consistently a couple of times every week and you currently aren’t? Is it that you need to specifically work on improving things such as your flexibility or strength as the foundation of the skill you want to learn?
Take a moment to reflect on what is actually stopping you and eventually, hopefully you will run out of reasons to not start!
