When I was in high school I was tall and extremely uncoordinated. Adults who didn’t know me well would ask if I played basketball and encourage me to start when they found out I didn’t. After all, I was tall. I would tell them that I wasn’t very coordinated, so the basketball team probably wouldn’t want me and try to leave the conversation very quickly.
“I’m very uncoordinated” was a message that quite frequently played itself in my head. Run my book bag into something or someone: “Sorry, I’m just uncoordinated.” Drop something: “Oops, uncoordinated!”
At some point I stopped saying this to myself and others on a regular basis, but if it came up I would still have completely agreed with it. The funny thing is, at some point over the last several years something odd started to happen. When I would drop something, or knock something over I was sometimes able to catch it. While I no longer carry a book bag, I generally have a large purse with me and I don’t run it into people. And I can (usually) stand on one foot and put a sock on the other without falling over. All of that and I was still wasn’t coordinated!
Well, that’s what I told myself. I’ve recently realized that despite what I’ve been telling myself – I am coordinated. I’m not exactly sure when it changed, but I do know that I’ve unintentionally been working on it for a while. How? Well, I’m in better physical shape than I was in high school and much more aware of my surroundings.
When I realized that saying “I’m uncoordinated” was no longer true, I wondered what other facts about me are no longer (if they ever were) true. I’ve found a couple and am keeping my eye out for more.
I also realized that if I had wanted to I could have become more coordinated while in high school with a little bit of work (regardless of my lack of interest in joining the basketball team). So, what facts about me do I want to change now? I’m working on creating that list.
So, what facts about you are no longer true? And what facts do you want to change?
You have given me something to think about. I will discuss it with my daughter; she has good insight.
Thanks
I hope it prompts a good discussion!
I was always doing things like forgetting what I was looking for or why I’d walked into a room or putting something into the bin instead of the sink or into the cupboard instead of the fridge. I used to laugh about that and I tell everyone that I was ‘scatty’ and, even took some pride in it. As I got older, I realised that scatty is not a good thing to be. Most importantly, I started to change when I stopped telling myself I was scatty and started affirming something more positive instead. It’s still a work in progress but these days I’m a lot more clear and organised. I still have my moments though!
Great awareness! Amazing how changing some of the wording in our head changes other things too, isn’t it 🙂