Last week on the blog, I spoke about courage.
Well, if there’s anyone who knows about courage, it’s Nadine Champion. What a legend! If you haven’t heard of Nadine, I recommend you take 20 minutes to watch her insane TedX talk.
Nadine is a champion in every sense of the word. A martial arts gun, Nadine is a title holder in both Thai Boxing and Kickboxing, and remains undefeated in all her fighting disciplines.
In 2013, Nadine won the biggest fight of her life against the cancer Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She’s inspired thousands to fight their own battles and uses her martial arts training to help others improve their own lives every day.
So, courage. Nadine talks about a concept her Sensei taught her and it’s really bloody powerful.
The idea is that when you need to feel brave, all it takes is ten seconds. Ten seconds of courage.
In Nadine’s words:
“I was relieved to know I didn’t have to be brave for the rest of my life, not for a whole night, or even for an entire fight. I only had to find a little burst of courage to start. Just ten seconds worth. I remember thinking almost anyone could do that… I could repeat it as necessary throughout the fight when things went wrong, when I felt pain or had a moment of self doubt. Just some brief moments of finding my inner brave voice to bring out my best when I needed it most.”
Success often comes when you can break a challenge down into smaller battles.
If you have enough courage to tackle that first one, you’ve already begun to win the fight. Whatever your fight may be.
It’s like my experience abseiling (which I spoke about last week) – all I had to do was find ten seconds of courage, enough bravery to take that first step over the edge of the cliff, and then I was doing it. I was in the moment, the battle already won.
It’s the same with my Iron Man training. When I think about the enormity of the challenge I’ve take on with Iron Man, it’s overwhelming. But if I can just get up every morning and use small bursts of bravery to train, then I’ll be ready when the day comes.
And yes, I’ll be finding another ten seconds of courage when I’m at the starting line of my first Iron Man, and probably several times throughout!
I’d love to see how you use this concept to power you through all kinds of challenges and new experiences this year.
Share your courageous moments with me and Nadine.
Until next time,
Turia xx
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