What's Your Max?

I spent yesterday at my gym participating in a weightlifting event. It wasn't a contest, per se, as we weren't competing against each other. Instead, it was an opportunity for us to each determine our one-rep maximum lift potential for three different basic lifts: the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift.  When the event was announced, I jumped at the chance to participate - I had never tried something like this before and was curious to see what it would be like.  As the day grew closer, I started to feel nervous and unsure of how I would fare.  Would I manage to exceed the previous best lifts I had achieved in the days and weeks leading up to the event, or would I crumble under pressure and feel disappointed in my performance?  Only one way to find out!

What struck me during the event was the fact that in life we aren't often provided with moments where we can really push our limits, lean into our edges, and see where that line between success and failure actually lies.  Instead, we tend to go on gut instinct, which often means we stop well before we reach a point of not being able to go any further.  Our minds are hard-wired to protect us from injury - not only physical but emotional as well - so we pull back instead of pushing forward when it starts to feel like our potential is being challenged.  Yesterday allowed me to venture into that unknown zone, despite the fears and worries that trailed me along the way. 

While I felt nervous on and off during the lifts, I found myself pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the discomfort became.  Once I acknowledged that being unsure of the outcome was just part of the experience, I was able to relax into that grey zone.  I wasn't alone - none of us knew what our day would have in store for us, and no matter how prepared we were, there was no way to guarantee success.  The only thing we could guarantee was failure if we allowed our minds to take over and convince our bodies that we were done or would not be able to complete the next lift.  Stubbornness for the win!  

At the end of the day I not only walked away with some new personal bests to feel proud of, but I also gained a newfound sense of possibility and curiosity about the "what ifs" that life often presents.  What if instead of talking myself out of going an extra few kilometers on my next run I go further?  What if I embrace challenges that feel daunting and put less emphasis on the outcomes?  What if I look at areas of my life where I pull back before it gets uncomfortable and push forward instead?  What would happen if I allowed myself to not succeed because I was too busy trying to see how far I could go?  I have no idea what the answers are to those questions, but I feel compelled to hold onto this feeling and push on my limits and edges more often to see if I can't move those lines in the sand a little further away from my comfort zone.